What you can and can’t change in Agile
Agile methodologies accommodate change easily, which is why they’re called -er- agile! However, some things don’t change. Here’s an overview of what you can and can’t change with agile:
Priority. Each sprint includes a review and re-prioritization of the functional backlog, so you can change priority before each sprint. Prioritization of items commonly occurs as functions are produced and stakeholders learn from using those functions. New business challenges and the benefit of new functions can come to light and be addressed. Priority changes must comply with technical practicalities and logical business sequences. For example, you can’t build a balance sheet unless you can process both revenue and expenses!
Schedule. When you review the functional backlog, you can adjust the schedule by moving the functions the business needs or wants into upcoming sprints. However, rescheduling requires accurate effort estimating.Developers learn more about the functions they produce, which improves their ability to estimate effort. As a result, you can more easily manage the schedule as the project progresses.
Scope. New scope ideas often surface after a few functions are produced. Scope changes are not only accommodated, but expected, with agile approaches. However, this often involves trade-offs. Budget and time negotiations or dropping existing scope items to accommodate new and important functions are likely to occur.
Deadlines. Agile projects usually involve allocating personnel for a pre-determined amount of time. Scope becomes the variable. As scope changes or reprioritizations are discussed, you can adjust the sprints to change deadlines for specific functions. The overall project deadline can even be changed– assuming the whole team is still available.
Don’t count on changing cadence or personnel! Setting the agile team anda sprint schedule – and sticking to it – are major success factors with agile. A major benefit of agile is what is learned along the way. Changing personnel disrupts that learning and diminishes agile benefits. Changing sprint structures can also be disruptive. Schedules are built around the vital, focused sprint meetings and activities. Changing the schedule can throw the team off their rhythm and disrupt the estimates and sprint plans that have been created.
For more on agile, check out the Become an Agile Project Manager learning path