One of the most uncomfortable aspects that come with adopting Agile is the uncertainty — not really knowing what you will end up with.
Throughout our education and business life, we have been taught to make order out of chaos. So why the reversal?
The main reason is that you don’t know what you want — or to be more precise —
what you think you want is not what you really want
You will know your ideal solution when you see it, but you can’t know what that is going to be until you start using a partial solution.
Rigid Plans Fail
So, whether you set down firm plans for the solution you are building or not, you will want to change those plans.
As the team develop a solution
- See how it works in practice
- Evolve requirements
- Adjust scope
- Refine, improve
There is a certain irony in planning not to plan, but embracing that uncertainty from the onset opens up the whole team to new possibilities.
Rigidly adhering to a plan is a recipe for disaster. IT and business teams regularly find themselves at loggerheads. E.g. IT insists on delivering against the approved requirements document. Even when the business can see new ways to improve the solution.
How To Start
Embracing uncertainty starts by setting expectations with stakeholders and the team. There is uncertainty and why this is not only inevitable, but in some cases desirable.
Have business sponsors proclaim — the plan can dynamically adapt as iterative versions are delivered.
Empower the team to make their own decisions, where they can explain why the revised solution is an improvement.
Take Agile seriously. Even when it’s hard to see the end, stick to the sprint delivery schedule. And ensure that each sprint contains demonstrable incremental value.