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Ways to make Agile Methodology work in Japanese companies

Have you ever wondered why Japan, the global hub of electronics and automotive manufacturing, has failed to embrace the modern software start up culture? Japan’s traditionalist approach towards workplace modernization and innovation methods like Agile especially in larger corporations is one of the reasons why it’s lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to startup culture and software development. Let’s explore more about why the Agile software development fails to work in big Japanese companies or corporations and what we can do to make this methodology work there.

Why Agile fails to work in large Japanese companies?

Agile development is a fast-paced development method as compared to other traditional models of software and product development. In Agile development, the products are made in various iterations and after each iteration; the customers, users or client review the product at that level completely. 

In Japan, however, most of the larger companies hire third parties to work for them, these third parties or subcontractors can also further hire people recursively, both online and offline, making the structure very complex. Each team will have almost 20 people and when there are a lot of teams it becomes very difficult to have centralized management and reach the set objectives. The ultimate goal is to satisfy the customer but due to these contracts and subcontracts, each team has a different set of goals to achieve and they work independently of one another. These separate goals add up to the final product, and then the quality, cost is calculated. 

Apart from this, the Japanese companies are heavily invested in hardware-centric growth; their success in that sector is a testament to this when you look at firms like Sony, Panasonic, Toyota etc. 

This complex work culture and a complicated ecosystem combined with low emphasis on IT in general is one of the main reasons why Agile development fails to take root in big Japanese companies. The companies never took it upon themselves to centralize the development management and diversify their workforce with more software and IT professionals. This makes software development in Japan more of a support industry that eats capital rather than being an innovative value-adding sector. 

Key actions to make Agile work in big Japanese companies.

To understand what the Japanese companies can do to adopt Agile, let’s take a look at how big tech companies successfully turned around their development methodologies using Agile. Let’s start with Sony and its PlayStation venture. Sony brought together around 1,000 different engineers across eight cities working to develop PlayStation products, trained them for a month, implemented strict cadence, immensely improving collaboration and reducing planning downtime. 

Apart from that, Rakuten transformed into Japan’s biggest internet companies using agile methods of warp speed innovation, green-blue development while adopting English as the official language, attracting a diverse workforce from around the world.

There are tons of success stories regarding Agile in the tech world, from Microsoft and Intel to Amazon and Sony PlayStation. Here are a few ways the Japanese companies can change in favor of software led innovation, startups and development:

Focusing on in-house IT development

Japanese companies are now hiring people to work under them directly, this is causing a decrease in outsourcing or subcontracting. More people are being hired by companies, when all the employees have the same goal and management it becomes easier to do Agile development, The developers and employees share the same viewpoint of the customer, also decreasing the time and cost required for changes demanded.

Training and Gradual Transformation:

Another important factor at why Japanese companies fail at Agile methodology is the miscommunication between the development team and the management. Your development team can be implementing Agile but the management might not be giving enough resources and attention to the dev team. The management team should also be trained for Agile method, it is as important as any other team of the organization. The whole organization requires transformation for ideal results, such that the development side and the business side can work collaboratively and in close cooperation as in the end the goal is to have a satisfied and happy customer.

Developing software with better and faster feedback loops 

The Japanese companies can transform their software development methods to a customer-focused model. This will allow their customers to enjoy better feedback and the company will be able to absorb update requests more easily.