Agile Iterations: Why Bother?

Gil Broza specializes in increasing organizational agility and team performance with minimal risk and thrashing. Dozens of companies seeking transformations, makeovers or improvements have relied on his pragmatic, modern and respectful support for customizing agile in their contexts. His book "The Agile Mind-Set" helps practitioners go beyond process and adopt a true agile approach to work. His book "The Human Side of Agile" is a practical book on leading agile teams to greatness. These days, several of the world's largest organizations are having him train hundreds of their managers in technology and business (up to VP level) on practical agile leadership. Get Gil's popular 20-session mini-program "Something Happened on the Way to Agile" free at OnTheWayToAgile.com.

  Agile   Scrum  

Based on Gil’s new book, The Agile Mind-Set: Making Agile Processes Work.

Teams run into trouble when they adopt agile practices without really knowing why they are doing them.  I often hear such statements:

• “We didn’t finish everything we planned for this sprint. We’ll just roll the remainder into the next one.”
• “Our iterations are never long enough to do our work properly. We should make them longer.”
• “Sprints feel like such overhead. We could be much more efficient if we just worked heads down until we finished these stories.”

This can happen when people who’ve been told to use iterations (sprints) still don’t understand why. And when they act on these statements, they unknowingly undermine their efforts to use agile. Let’s unpack this.

Thinking inside the box
Some endeavors in life are “scope-boxed” or “content-boxed”: To accomplish the goal, you must finish certain things. To obtain a university degree, for instance, you must complete a set of courses with passing (but not necessarily perfect) grades. To continue eating your meals at home, you must regularly clean the dishes.

Other endeavors are “quality-boxed”: To accomplish the goal, you must reach a higher standard than simply getting the …

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