As the digital orthodontic practice continues to evolve, developing agile teams well-equipped to work in this new environment is becoming increasingly essential. Agile teams are cohesive units capable of assessing and responding quickly to the ever-changing needs of patients and the organization. This ability allows orthodontic practices to deliver results efficiently while ensuring the highest standards of quality and care. By implementing an agile team structure, orthodontic procedures can anticipate and address new challenges swiftly and with fewer resources, resulting in improved productivity and reliability.
Digital work is changing how orthodontists work and interact with their patients. By utilizing agile teams, orthodontists can quickly identify issues and make changes to improve patient outcomes. Additionally, agile team methodology can enhance communication and collaboration among orthodontists, their team members, and patients, improving patient satisfaction.
The Agile Manifesto
The Agile Manifesto is a set of principles emphasizing customer collaboration, team self-organization, and embracing change within a project’s development. It was created in 2001 by a group of software development experts who wanted to develop an effective approach to software development. The Agile Manifesto has since become one of the most influential documents in software engineering. Large and small companies have used it worldwide as the basis for agile development projects.
The four core values of Agile software development from the Agile Manifesto:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
Agile for Orthodontic teams
Orthodontists don’t develop software, but we depend on and leverage software tools when we immerse into digital orthodontics. These software development principles can help us make the digital transformation and improve beyond digital implementation. We want to prioritize the interactions with our patients above the focus on processes and tools. We want to develop effective appliances and treatment plans instead of relying on office manuals and policies. Although we have patients complete orthodontic agreements for care and financial contracts, we prefer a collaborative effort toward treatment results. Finally, we parallel the Agile core values by responding to change in treatment over blindly following a digital plan.
Including agile principles within an orthodontic practice can yield long-term organizational sustainability, results, and improved patient experience. Agile teams follow the core values of trust, collaboration, communication, and focus on the end goals. A team willing to work together to solve problems and develop new strategies can help create a successful digital orthodontic practice.
