Striving to Become Agile in the Public Sector: A Context Theory Perspective

With an increasing number of digitalization initiatives in the public sector, public shared service providers that deliver and steering bodies that orchestrate the realization of those initiatives are under pressure to become agile, i.e., to adopt agile activities, principles, and an agile mindset. This study investigates challenges and corresponding mitigation measures of scaled agile transformations of such organizations. Based on data gathered through Action Research based multiple case studies and drawing on context theory, it identifies obstacles related to the political, environmental, and internal context as well as transformation management itself. Among them are siloed actions and individual interests, IT legacy, complexity of customer requirements, insufficient resources, no shared vision, low professionalization, and a missing holistic picture. Value stream thinking, architectural thinking, successful pilot projects, constructive criticism, and a culture of failure are suggested as countermeasures. The identified obstacles and measures fit well into and extend the findings from a systematic literature review. Our contribution is to contextualize and extend insights and recommendations related to the large-scale agile transformation of public shared service providers and steering bodies that both serve multiple customers, i.e., other public sector organizations. Further research can quantitatively test the measures, develop maturity models for them, or identify obstacle-measure-patterns. Practitioners receive insights that should also contribute to a more successful transformation of the public sector in the benefit of society and economy.