Managing Time Complexity with Agility: How More Considered Thinking about Time Helped Fujitsu to Set a Guinness World Record

Gerster D; Dremel C; Conboy K; vom Brocke J

Abstract
Digital transformation creates pressure on established enterprises as they need to increase speed and flexibility in order to respond to rapidly changing market environments. To master digital transformation challenges, organizations are increasingly turning to 'high speed' methods such as flow and agile. We argue that the differentiating feature of these methods is how they address time to achieve speed, epitomized by terms such as cycle time, lead-time, latency, real-time, and velocity. We examine how Fujitsu succeeded in managing time complexity in its innovation process, setting a Guinness World Record with the largest animated tablet PC mosaic by managing multiple facets of time with the help of selective agile practices. We compare our findings with four other cases confirming that scaled agile practices at their core can help in managing time complexity.

Keywords
Agile practices; agility; digital transformation; time complexity; time conceptions