When is Agile worth the Overhead? 


“Agile is so great we need to use it for EVERYTHING”

“Agile is so much overhead, we stopped using it for ANYTHING”

Are you also trying to navigate what to do with Agile? Whether it’s worth the overhead?

After years of helping a diverse group of organizations figure out where and how to use agile methods, here's what I've learned...

If you want the TL;DR version - Agile has the potential to shine when ….

  1. There’s enough risk and uncertainty to justify the overhead of frequent feedback loops.
  2. Addressing the challenge/leveraging the opportunity requires collaboration - sometimes across functions.
  3. You focus on principles/behaviors rather than mechanics/dogma

What this also means is that in the absence of the need for iterative collaborative work, no matter how streamlined and effective your agile process is, it might not be worth the time

Read the full When is Agile worth the Overhead article to explore some example contexts where Agile might or might not be applicable.

It’s all about Intent and Context

Here’s the thing. Applying a cookie cutter approach for everything might seem more straightforward and more consistent, but requires a frustrating uphill battle to conquer a hill not worth conquering.

In my experience, aligning on the intent and then focusing on relevant contexts creates much healthier, gratifying, and impactful change.

PS I also find this framing when navigating the human/people aspects of another capital A adoption.

Scaling w/ Agility

Are You Struggling to Scale Your Organization ? Need agility but dubious of process BS/dogma? I share reflective, pragmatic, principled takes on how to approach scaling your organization leveraging the essence (rather than theater) of product operating models, agile practices and frameworks, and business operating systems such as EOS and OKRs.

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