This week Iril delivered her thesis documenting the results of a six months study of NAV (Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration) and how they have been implementing agile methods in their organizations.
The study is based on in-depth interviews with 10 informants from NAV who have been involved in recent re-organization of NAV where agile methods and organizing are being formalized by NAV and integrated in organizational charts.
Iril has use the case study method to answer the question: How has Nav’s organizational reconfiguration shaped the formalization of large-scale agile ways of working in selected parts of the Benefits Department? She has focused on autonomy, coordination, governance, and cross-functional collaboration experienced and managed in everyday work.
- Title: Formalizing agility in large-scale agile transformation- A case study of autonomy, coordination, and cross-functional collaboration in a large public organization.
- Author: Iril Straumbotn.
- Abstract: Large public organizations increasingly use agile and product-oriented ways of working to develop digital services. However, these practices must coexist with formal responsibility, legal requirements, coordination needs, and public-sector accountability. This thesis examines how large-scale agile ways of working are formalized and enacted in selected parts of the Benefits Department in the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration after the 2025 organizational reconfiguration. The study is designed as a qualitative embedded single-case study of the Benefits Department within the Nav Directorate, focusing on selected sections, teams, and roles. The empirical material consists of ten semi-structured interviews, supported by document analysis and analyzed through an abductive, Gioia-inspired approach. The findings show five main points. First, the 2025 reconfiguration did not introduce agile or cross-functional work from scratch, but formalized product-oriented practices that had already developed through the earlier product-area organization. Second, team autonomy was experienced as aligned and interdependent rather than absolute. Third, agile and bureaucratic logics coexisted through hybrid governance arrangements. Fourth, cross-functional collaboration depended on continuous translation between legal, domain-specific, technical, product-related, and design perspectives. Fifth, leadership and lead roles functioned as an intermediary coordinating layer around the teams. The thesis contributes to research on large-scale agile transformation by showing how a later phase of transformation can involve anchoring already established agile practices within the formal organization. The findings further show that formalized agility is not only a matter of changing structures or empowering teams, but an ongoing process of making agile work coordinated, accountable, and sustainable within a larger system of responsibility.