IMA Releases New Report on Agility’s Role in the Finance Function

“An Agile Approach to Finance Transformation” showcases how finance teams can benefit from the application of agile and scrum.

IMA^® (Institute of Management Accountants) today released a new Statement on Management Accounting (SMA), “An Agile Approach to Finance Transformation,” that explores how finance functions can benefit from adopting an agile approach to transformation.

Finance teams around the world are advancing their transformation journeys from data stewardship to value creation and decision support, generating the need for the agile finance function. Agility offers finance teams a path toward sustained transformation, continuous improvement, and tailored solutions.

“Finance function leads would benefit from embedding and leveraging agility as they transform, with the ultimate goal of becoming an agile finance function,” said Loreal Jiles, director of research – digital technology and finance transformation at IMA and author of the report. “The long-term viability of the finance function is dependent on the extent to which agility becomes embedded within its culture.”

The SMA explores the role of agility in today’s finance function and presents how finance departments and organizations can benefit from adopting agile characteristics. It includes finance and accounting use cases to demonstrate value delivery through the application of agile (the software development lifecycle) and scrum (a framework for complex project delivery).

“Utilizing agile and scrum to redefine approaches to core activities like financial planning and analysis, internal audit, and financial close can position management accountants to better support the unprecedented number of transformation initiatives organizations embark upon today,” added Jiles.

The report is one of many resources IMA has in relation to agile and scrum, which includes “Agile and Scrum 101,” an online course explaining the methodologies and two additional online courses that will be released later this month.

To read the full report, visit https://www.imanet.org/insights-and-trends/the-future-of-management-accounting/an-agile-approach-to-finance-transformation?ssopc=1.