Assignment 7: Research Project Mid-term Paper Final(Topic: Implementation Agile methodologies in Retail Domain)

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IMPLEMENTATION AGILE METHODOLOGY IN RETAIL DOMAIN

BY

NAGA SRINIVAS GUNTUPALLI

GRAD695 RESEARCH PROJECT MID-TERM FINAL PAPER

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Abstract

This paper gives a clear demonstration of resources that were used in explanation of

agile methodology and its usefulness in the retail companies. This research includes literature

review which talks of the past information about agile methodology. Literature review contains

work explaining the origin of this methodology. Paper also provides information of the authors

with correct citations and references which are been utilized for this research to make sure

research has added value towards the topic. Paper has mainly highlighted the problem and

causes for it along with it also covered solution to the concerned problem as a part of a strategy

to ensure who issues can resolved when it is implemented or executed with actions so this

makes sure who future processes can replace the current process to sustain in the industry with

competitiveness.

Key words: agile, lean, retail, user interfaces, requirements, e-commerce

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Table of contents

 Abstract

 Background of the research project

 Problem statement

 Issues of the retail industry

 Effects of the issues in the retail industry

 Solution of the research on the problem

 Literature review

o Implementation agile methodology

o Lean Agile Methodology

o Importance of agile in retail industry

o Argument on lean agile methodology

o Four-phase model concept

 References

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Background of the research project

In response to the customer’s needs in retail sector has been urgent need for an

organized system. Customers’ perspectives are one of the growth determinants in the retail

sector. Welchs & Biggs, (2018) argues that in effort to grow, traditional retailers in

developing nations have been running up and down against a brick wall. In today’s retail

setting there is certainly no room for all retailers to grow. In order to do so, they need to

adopt new systems such as agile methodologies. This will enable them to overcome

organizational barriers such as strongly defined functional silos and long-established

comfortable ways of doing business.

The use of agile methodologies consists of agile models which has immense benefits,

enabling companies to capitalize on their scale while building relationship between

employees of the organization and customers. The model results into employee engagement

as well as customer centricity. Welchs & Biggs, (2018) further states that organizations that

have embraced agile methodologies have more doers, fewer managers, and as a result lowers

the costs of operations. The main essence of agile methodology is that it is a set of principles

that focuses on the ways of working not a dogmatic prescription to a particular challenge in

the operations environment of the business.

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Problem Statement and Justification

Retail businesses have always been ‘customer first’ oriented. But this has not been the

case with the rise of multinational retail organizations. They focus more on corporate policies

at the expense of customer’s need. This has led to crippling business in most retail stores with

stiff competitions of new entrants in the industry. Challenges facing most retail organizations

today are attributed to the use of traditional approaches of doing business in a modern society

where all sectors embrace technologies. The common approach in the retail industry that has

been used over the years is waterfall methodology.

Issues of the retail industry

Retail tech insights journal, (2020) highlights some of the critical issues of the retail

sector. The industry faces the major challenge of continuous changing business environment

with unpredictable consequences on their business. Retail tech insights outline five major

challenges faced by retail industry which includes, customer retention, technology solutions,

inspiring and retaining employees, managing customer expectations, and internal

communication. There is need for a collaborative approach to streamline the operations of the

retail sector.

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Effects of the issues in the retail industry

Retail business owners are likely to face serious consequences because of the issues

upon which they operate. McGodrick, (2003) explained that for the retail business owners to

understand the changing forces that affect their business there is need for clear understanding

of the operating environment. Currently there is rapid technological advancements in the

business world with ever changing customer’s expectations. Without aligning to this reality

cause a retail business to lag behind while overtaken by customer centric organizations. Not

understanding the changing business environment keep a retail business in the loop of

extinction because they are likely to be overwhelmed by market competition and massive

customers’ drifting.

Solution of the research on the problem

There has not been comprehensive focus on adoption of strategic approaches to solve

the issues of the retail industry. Santamaria, (2020) argues that retail businesses have a

tendency of trying any technology that comes their way without specific need to solve by the

technology. As result they have continually experienced challenges in streamlining their

business environment. There has not been any problem-solving focused approach by the

retail businesses which has in most cases landed their business in endless crisis. This research

highlights the importance of implementation of agile methodology in retail domain. The

important goal is establishment of customer retention model as well as employee engagement

techniques.

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Literature Review

Implementation agile methodology

Most organizations are becoming more interested and eager to apply agile

methodologies in their business operations. This paper reviews implementation of agile

methodologies in retail domain. Among the sectors that have struggled to overcome business

barriers is the retail sector. The sector grapples with unpredictable business environment

which keep changing every now and then. More crucial is the continuous change in customer

tastes and preferences. Gradle, (2016) posits that retail organizations feels the increasing

pinch of unprecedented customer expectations which impacts negatively on their business

through shift in demand for their products. Implementation of agile methodology is

considered has the cure of retail issues by technology experts and business analysts.

Lean Agile Methodology

Lean agile methodology is very crucial to the manufacturing system since it reduces

the waste without sacrificing productivity, where the same concept applicable towards retail

system also. Here the customer will determine the value of the product by the amount they

are using to pay the product. According to Zhou, B. (2016) what adds value to the product

becomes clear whereby the factors that have no or less value been being taken away. The

principles of lean include eliminating waste, building quality, creating knowledge, deferring

commitment, delivering fast and respecting people so that the whole process can be

optimized. This concept has taken over the Chinese supply chain companies which includes

employment empowerment and utilize the of retail services in production when the

requirements are deployment with alignment of customer’s needs, necessities, and their wish

list.

According to Jaca et.al 2012 Lean methodology is not new it really derives from the

old systems such as e-commerce systems, where predecessors are the lineage of lean

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methodology which can be traced to Eli Whitney in the years of 1950s. ERP solutions with

help agile methodology can be a good fit in the retail industry where true integration of the

entire process of production can take place with standardized the flow of work in production.

All this integration where the source of lean methodology, it was initiated with these simple

integrations.

Importance of agile in retail industry

Agile incorporates the trends in the retail industry with the aim of promoting the

interconnectivity of the several aspects of the system to enhance the process is at pace

according to Kisperska-Moron et.al 2009. This increases productivity in the sector of retail

and the quality of the products is increased at the same time. The relationship between the

supplier ends to the product disposal end is made efficient whereby production is deployed in

a holistic manner with the inclusion of many companies.

Argument on lean agile

Goldman et al, 1995 argues that lean manufacturing was started as a concept of

describing the best practice inside the retail industry and experienced slow revolution but

today, the concept should be well utilized in the retail industry also. While the Lean

methodology has offered a well-structured collection of methods and enablers, agile retailing

should also be wide philosophy which started from the work of agile enterprise forum, which

is has its roots to the Lehigh University and was started in 1991. The work is well

documented in the 21st century manufacturing enterprise strategy. He says that the point of

departure for agile methodology is the increased unpredictability and dynamics of industrial

enterprise environment. The same concept is applicable in the retail industry also where

unpredictability had become more concern for the retail companies in dealing with

requirements of retail customers. He says that agility can be defined as the ability of

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operating profitably in a competitive environment of continuous and unpredictably changing

customer opportunities.

Gunnison, (1996) says that agility is more than just the traditional organizational

flexibility interpretation. The organizational mastery of changes is in focus in the agile

organization; thus, knowledge and people are taken as the most crucial organizational assets.

In addition, the capability and organizational learning to reconfigure the business on a

continuing basis are key features of the agile enterprise, which is often associated with the

ability to intelligently innovate and invent new responses, that is to new markets and business

processes.

A retail project vision could comprise of a combination of agile and lean strategic

components suited to the specific circumstances of the industrial enterprise. The five-step

process aims at engaging employees and managers in a constructive dialogue that result to a

commonly shared appreciation of the need to change and a common vision of the operation

and structure of future production. There are three challenges that are associated with

formulating a retail vision, which is integrating different elements and perspectives of a

production system, ensuring a collaborative process with a high degree of participation, and

including innovative characteristics. These are areas that need serious future research.

A retail project vision could play various roles. When the corporate strategy is robust

and clear, the retail project vision will comprise of a blueprint for designing and designing of

a production system. However, when the environment is turbulent, a direct planning approach

can be applied (Gunasekaran, 2001). Two opposing retail project visions might serve as a

means of generating a constructive dialogue and could contribute to clarifications of

potentials ad direction for the whole company.

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Four-phase model concept

There literature has brought about the four-phase model. The first phase comprises of

the determining the different users targeted by the product and the functional perimeter with

the goal of obtaining the possible visions of the product. This phase lasts longer than the

demand analysis in the agile method extreme programming, that, one to three weeks; this

results to limitation in performing the in-depth research regarding users and their

circumstances. The same concept can be applicable to the retail domain companies which has

to follow agile methodology

There is another model known as the agile model driven development which was

developed by Ambler. In this model, the user interface expert is part if the agile team and

therefore must conform to the method pace. For this model to work, Ambler recommends that

anybody engaged should make effort in understanding the philosophy of another person’s

disciplines, in the interest of being able to work together (Deuff, & Cosquer,2013). He as

well points that the feedback relating to the usability needs to be considered in much the same

way as a technical problem.

The user interface experts do not have the time to stand back in the iterations and to

put forward a coherent HCI as they do with a conventional project. To defeat this

entanglement (loss of heading because of an absence of a worldwide vision), a few articles

propose having a cycle that is consistently committed to the worldwide intelligence of the

item. It appears to be critical to take note of a last point identifying with the assets.

Apparently the more the user interface specialists need to walk in sync with the engineers, the

less time they have ahead of time of the advancement eliminate to convey their work, and the

more prominent are the assets which must be

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References

 Bruce, M., Daly, L., & Towers, N. (2004). Lean or agile: a solution for supply chain

management in the textiles and clothing industry? International journal of operations

& production management.

 Deuff, D., & Cosquer, M. (2013). User-centered agile method. ProQuest E-book

Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

 Gunasekaran, A. (2001) (Page 346). Agile manufacturing: The 21st century

competitive strategy. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/harrisburg-

ebooks/reader.action?docID=320647&ppg=54

 Jaca, C., Viles, E., Mateo, R., & Santos, J. (2012). Components of sustainable

improvement systems: theory and practice. The TQM Journal.

 Kisperska-Moroń, D. (2010). Evolution of competencies of logistics and supply chain

managers. LogForum. Electronic Scientific Journal of Logistics, 6(3).

 Kisperska-Moron, D., & Swierczek, A. (2009). The agile capabilities of Polish

companies in the supply chain: An empirical study. International Journal of

Production Economics, 118(1), 217-224.

 Santamaria J, (2020) Meeting the changing needs of customers. A retail tech insights

journal. Merchandising edition

 Zhou, B. (2016). Lean principles, practices, and impacts: a study on small and

medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Annals of Operations Research, 241(1-2), 457-

474.

 Batra, D. (2020). Job-Work Fit as a Determinant of the Acceptance of Large-Scale

Agile Methodology. Journal of Systems and Software, 110577.

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 Kraume, K., Voormanns, K., & Zhong, J. (2019). How a Global Customer Service

Leader is Using a Reference Model to Structure Its Transformation While Remaining

Fast and Agile. In The Art of Structuring (pp. 101-111). Springer, Cham.

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