Why Agile Culture Matters
In today’s fast-paced digital economy, the ability to adapt quickly is not just a competitive advantage, it is a necessity for survival. Organisations across industries are embracing Agile methodologies to remain innovative, flexible, and resilient in the face of uncertainty. But while many transformations focus heavily on processes and tools, true agility lies in culture. Without cultural alignment, agile practices risk becoming hollow rituals that fail to deliver lasting impact.
This is where the research by Uwasomba et al. (2025) makes a valuable contribution. The study demonstrates how a data-driven change using the Agile Business Consortium’s Agile Culture Matrix (ACM) and its associated Pulse Survey can be applied to assess and track cultural transformation in real-world organisations. By examining shifts across multiple cultural dimensions over time, the findings offer both practical guidance to practitioners into how agile culture evolves and why it matters.
Context
The case study focuses on a mid-sized technology company, referred to here as Company X to preserve anonymity, working with the Agile Business Consortium from 2021 to 2022. The organisation, operating across telecommunications, finance, and utilities, recognised that while their values resonated with Agile principles, their cultural practices had reached a plateau. Leadership sought deeper insights into how to strengthen agility across the business.
To achieve this, the company adopted the Agile Culture Matrix (ACM) (see the Figure below) and the Pulse Survey, a structured assessment framework comprising 35 questions across seven cultural dimensions. The survey was conducted in 2021, and the findings showed that while the team was strongly aligned with the organisation’s purpose and vision, improvements were needed in trust and transparency, since employees felt unable to voice concerns, and in innovation and learning, particularly around training and new approaches to customer issues. The leadership team committed to change on trust and transparency and repeated the survey in 2022.
Figure: Agile Culture Matrix
Key Findings From Trust to Innovation
The study provides several noteworthy insights:
- Reliability of the Pulse Survey: The Pulse Survey can help organisations reliably assess their agility in a data-driven manner. Statistical tests confirmed the robustness of the instrument to assess cultural dimensions. This validation is critical, as it demonstrates that organisations can trust the survey to produce meaningful data.
- Targeted Cultural Improvements Drive Broader Change: Leadership at Company X initially focused on enhancing Trust and Transparency (TT), an area identified as weak. Results showed significant improvement in openness, feedback, and honesty in decision-making. Importantly, these targeted changes also correlated with improvements across other cultural dimensions such as Innovation and Learning, demonstrating the interconnected nature of organisational culture.
- Statistically Significant Shifts: The results reveal measurable improvements in several dimensions, including Purpose and Results (PR), Agile Leadership (AL), Well-being and Fulfilment (WF), Adaptability to Change (AC), and Innovation and Learning (IL). For example, staff reported greater clarity about organisational goals, stronger leadership accountability, and increased willingness to embrace change.
- Areas Requiring Further Work: Not all areas showed significant improvement. For example, Collaboration and Autonomy (CA) demonstrated mixed results, with some employees reporting inadequate resources and training. This highlights the importance of continuous monitoring and addressing persistent challenges rather than assuming transformation is complete after initial success.
Impact and Applications
The findings underscore the importance of adopting a data-driven approach to Agile transformation. Rather than relying solely on intuition or qualitative feedback, leaders can use instruments like the Pulse Survey to generate actionable insights grounded in evidence.
This brings multiple benefits:
The study also highlights that while Agile Culture Matrix and the Pulse Survey are valuable, tacit knowledge, embedded in the lived experience of employees, remains crucial. Company X succeeded not only because they used the Pulse Survey but because leadership actively engaged staff in interpreting results, making adjustments, and co-creating change initiatives. This bottom-up involvement ensured that cultural transformation was authentic and sustainable.
Building a Culture of Lasting Agility
Agile transformation is not a one-off milestone but a continuous journey. The study by Uwasomba et al. (2025) shows how data-driven tools such as the Pulse Survey can guide organisations through cultural change, helping leaders build trust, adaptability, and continuous learning. For practitioners, the key message is clear: true agility depends on shifting culture as much as processes, and reliable data can illuminate the path forward.
References
Uwasomba, C., Deshpande, A., Sharp, H., Gregory, P., Willis, T., Barroca, L., Uwadi, M., & Taylor, K. (2025). Data-Driven Agility: Assessing Agile Culture Transformation in a Technology Organisation. *Information and Software Technology, 183*, 107729. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107729