Sources and Citations
Companion reference for Applied End-to-End Flow: Enterprise (Book 1).
These notes cover selected research discussed in Chapters 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Each entry identifies the citation, the associated claim and its limits, and its source status. The notes are not a complete bibliography for every chapter. For the framework’s broader intellectual lineage, see Citations and References.
Status distinguishes a bounded source finding from a corrected attribution or an unresolved claim. An unresolved number should not be used as established evidence.
Chapter 1: The Great Agile Lie
Bain’s 2023 Transformation Survey, reported in 2024
Citation: Slagt, Peter, Melissa Burke, and Anna Cochemé. “The Three Common Transformation Talent Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.” Bain & Company. April 2024. The article discusses Bain’s 2023 Transformation & Change Survey of more than 400 executives and senior leaders. It uses a separate initiative database for a different finding.
Source: Read Bain’s 2023 Transformation Survey, reported in 2024
Finding and limits: Bain reports that 12% of transformations achieve their original ambition. This is not an 88% total-failure rate. Its statement that fewer than 5% of roles create 90% of transformation value is presented as Bain’s experience.
Status: Bounded finding.
McKinsey Transformation Failure Research
Citation: Robinson, Harry. “Why Do Most Transformations Fail? A Conversation with Harry Robinson.” McKinsey & Company. 2019.
Source: Read McKinsey Transformation Failure Research
Finding and limits: Source for the ~70% transformation failure baseline. McKinsey senior partner Harry Robinson summarizes academic research showing that “when corporations launch transformations, roughly 70% fail.” This source does not establish the upper end of the 70-95% range previously attached to it.
Status: Bounded finding.
BCG Agile Study (2024)
Citation: BCG. “Why Companies Get Agile Right, and Wrong.” May 2024. Study of 127 companies across 23 countries.
Source: Read BCG Agile Study (2024)
Finding and limits: BCG compares 66% claiming successful transformation with 53% meeting its criteria for target realization and lasting change. Its 47% category is described by BCG as an illusion of agility. The figures use BCG’s study and success definitions.
Status: Bounded finding.
Digital.ai State of Agile Report (2023)
Citation: Digital.ai. 17th Annual State of Agile Report. 2023.
Source: Read Digital.ai State of Agile Report (2023)
Finding and limits: The 86% software-development usage figure belongs to an earlier report cycle, not this 2023 citation. Leadership-support and culture figures also require the exact edition and question. Do not use these numbers under the current citation.
Status: Correction. The previously attached numerical claim is not supported by this citation as presented.
KPMG Global CEO Outlook: Agile or Irrelevant (2019)
Citation: KPMG. Agile or Irrelevant: Redefining Resilience. 2019 Global CEO Outlook. Survey of approximately 1,300 CEOs across 11 countries.
Source: Read KPMG Global CEO Outlook: Agile or Irrelevant (2019)
Finding and limits: This PDF does not support the claim that 62% of senior executives see no personal implications from Agile. The claim remains unsupported by this citation. If a copy of the book repeats it, this note supplies the correction; it should not be cited as a finding of this KPMG report.
Status: Correction. The previously attached numerical claim is not supported by this citation as presented.
CA Technologies Agile and DevOps Study (2018)
Citation: Panditi, Surya. “Survey Data Shows That Many Companies Are Still Not Truly Agile.” Harvard Business Review, Sponsor Content from CA Technologies. March 2018. Findings from a global survey of approximately 1,300 IT and business leaders, reported in “How Agile and DevOps Enable Digital Readiness and Transformation” (CA Technologies, 2018).
Source: Read CA Technologies Agile and DevOps Study (2018)
Finding and limits: In the CA-sponsored survey, the group labeled “Agility Masters” reports 60% higher revenue and profit growth than the remaining respondents. The comparison is observational and sponsor-reported; it does not establish that broad adoption caused the growth difference.
Status: Bounded finding.
Chapter 3: Alignment Drift
PMI Survey (2024)
Citation: Project Management Institute. Proprietary survey comparing C-suite and agile practitioner perspectives. 2024.
Finding and limits: The earlier reference attached two figures: 72% of executives agreeing on strategy clarity and 41% believing their operating model supports execution. Neither figure is established by the citation as presented.
Status: Unresolved. The listed citation does not identify an accessible report and precise supporting passage for the attached figures.
Kaplan & Norton Strategy Research
Citation: Kaplan, Robert S. and David P. Norton. “Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System.” Harvard Business Review. January-February 1996. The previously linked 1996 article, reprinted in 2007, did not establish the statistic below.
Source: Read Kaplan & Norton Strategy Research
Finding and limits: In a March 2006 HBS interview, Robert Kaplan and Andrew Pateman report that 95% of employees in most organizations do not understand the strategy. They place this in the context of their research and client work. The interview does not supply a representative population or method for applying that percentage to another organization.
Status: Corrected attribution. A primary-speaker source carries the claim, but its population and method remain insufficient for a general benchmark.
Chapter 4: Choked Flow
McKinsey Product Development Analysis (via HBR)
Citation: House, Charles H. and Raymond L. Price. “The Return Map: Tracking Product Teams.” Harvard Business Review. January-February 1991. Reports McKinsey research on time-to-market impact on profitability.
Source: Read McKinsey Product Development Analysis (via HBR)
Finding and limits: The 1991 article reports a McKinsey comparison of delayed launches and development overruns. Its percentages are historical estimates, not universal loss rates.
Status: Bounded finding.
Context Switching Research (APA)
Citation: Rubinstein, Joshua S., David E. Meyer, and Jeffrey E. Evans. “Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. American Psychological Association. 2001.
Source: Read Context Switching Research (APA)
Finding and limits: The 2001 task-switching study examines switching costs in experimental tasks. It does not establish a universal 20-40% workplace productivity loss. That numerical claim is unsupported by the citation as presented.
Status: Correction. The previously attached numerical claim is not supported by this citation as presented.
ASOS Flow Efficiency Study (2023)
Citation: ASOS Technology Blog. “Flow Efficiency Study.” 2023. Analysis of 63 agile teams over 12 months using Jira data.
Finding and limits: The earlier reference attached 5-15% typical flow efficiency, meaning 85-95% of time is spent waiting rather than working.
Status: Unresolved. The listed citation does not identify an accessible report and precise supporting passage for the attached figures.
Dependency Wait Time Research
Citation: Practitioner studies and Lean case studies. Aggregated from multiple organizational assessments.
Finding and limits: The earlier reference attached 30-40% of team time wasted waiting on other teams, approvals, or decisions.
Status: Unresolved. The listed citation does not identify an accessible report and precise supporting passage for the attached figures.
Chapter 5: Broken Feedback
Pendo Feature Adoption Report (2019)
Citation: Pendo.io. Feature Adoption Report. 2019. Analysis of feature usage across 615 Pendo subscriptions held by customers using the service for more than a year.
Source: Read Pendo Feature Adoption Report (2019)
Finding and limits: Pendo reports low or absent use for 80% of features in its analyzed products and estimates up to $29.5 billion spent developing such features across public cloud software companies. The dollar figure is an extrapolation, not a direct measure of annual waste; infrequent use alone does not establish lack of value.
Status: Bounded finding.
Chapter 6: The Vicious Cycle
Gallup Manager Engagement Estimate (2015)
Citation: Beck, Randall, and Jim Harter. “Managers Account for 70% of Variance in Employee Engagement.” Gallup. April 21, 2015.
Source: Read Gallup Manager Engagement Estimate (2015)
Finding and limits: Gallup estimates that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in engagement scores across business units. This is Gallup’s cross-unit estimate, not the percentage of any one employee’s engagement caused by a manager.
Status: Bounded finding.
McKinsey: How to Beat the Transformation Odds (2015)
Citation: McKinsey & Company. “How to Beat the Transformation Odds.” April 1, 2015. This survey report appears within the linked collection of transformation research.
Source: Read McKinsey: How to Beat the Transformation Odds (2015)
Finding and limits: The 2015 survey reports transformations as 5.3 times more likely to succeed when senior leaders model the requested behavior changes. Success concerns sustained performance improvement under the report’s definition. This reported association does not establish an isolated causal effect of role modeling or prove that cultural interventions outperform technology in every setting.
Status: Bounded finding.
Source access varies. Where a citation lacks an identifiable report or adequate support, its finding remains unresolved. A working link alone does not validate the attached claim.