You’re Only as Agile as You Think

Mark Mullaly is president of Interthink Consulting Incorporated, an organizational development and change firm specializing in the creation of effective organizational project management solutions. Since 1990, it has worked with companies throughout North America to develop, enhance and implement effective project management tools, processes, structures and capabilities. Mark was most recently co-lead investigator of the Value of Project Management research project sponsored by PMI. You can read more of his writing at markmullaly.com.

  Agile  

Anyone who has read even a modicum of my writing here—and if you dig deep, there’s a lot to find—knows that I have a complicated relationship with “agile” as a practice.

That complication exists for a number of reasons. It is real, it is present, it is persistent. It also probably isn’t going anywhere any time soon, either.

My challenges with agile aren’t because I don’t like it or think it is not relevant, however. Agile principles make a great deal of sense, and agile has a lot to offer. On the other side of the fence, there is also relevance and value from more traditional project management approaches. We do not live in a one-size-fits-all world, so we should not presume the same of our practices.

My most common answer to questions is “it depends” for a reason; much of what works is contextual. It requires consideration. We need to understand situation and circumstance before we can prescribe an approach and solution.

The challenge is that figuring out context takes work. It means digging in to understand what is going on, weighing options and evaluating priorities, and figuring out how to most appropriately respond. This requires effort, takes time and comes with a certain amount of risk. Digging deep doesn’t always mean that we get clearer answers; sometimes, the more we dig, the messier it all …

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