When a company makes the move from software as a service (SaaS) to an API-first platform, a change in mindset is required. The successful transitions come from those who shift from features to flexibility. Technology teams should look to remove constraints and broaden the possibilities of their platform by constantly exploring ways to make their platform as flexible as possible.

You can learn all the theoretical agile principles and best practices, but you still may not be agile. To be truly agile, you must also communicate and collaborate with your team—and this means speaking up. Even if you're not a natural extrovert, there are plenty of ways you can contribute during planning, sprints, and retrospectives to make your product and process better.

When companies adopt agile internally, they often forget to extend the concepts and values to their partners. You have to look at your outsourced delivery components as part of the process that needs to be included as an extended team. Collaboration, reflection, and improvement is at the heart of agile, and it should look that way from the perspective of all elements in the delivery chain.

When going through a merger or acquisition, capturing the critical processes of both parties is a key to success. Including everyone in the planning helps ease the impacts of change and develop ideas for the future. Here are five steps to assist with process management and create a new organization that is greater than the sum of its parts.