The Structure of Agility from Different Perspectives

Agility as a term is widely known today. However, a common understanding of what agility means and what it consists of is missing. Until today, a lot of frameworks have been developed, but they are very heterogeneous regarding content and structure. This paper approaches that issue by conducting a systematic comparison of 28 available agility frameworks out of the domains of agile manufacturing, agile software development, agile organization, and agile workforce. Altogether, 33 concepts related to agility were identified. The results of the comparison show that even within the examined specific domains a lack of consensus is obvious. In addition, the utilized concepts are very ambigious and overlapping. So, the interdependencies between the identified concepts were analyzed in detail. This revealed five recurring “clusters” that each combine several concepts with similar content, but despite the amount of available frameworks, none of it reflects these clusters directly. Hence, the study shows that the factors beyond the construct of agility are not fully uncovered yet.