Agile is Not Always the Answer

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  

By my informal assessment, too many people are inappropriately trying to force-fit their work into agile frameworks. All over the world, agile is the new darling. This approach to doing work has caught the attention of most IT and product development managers who are now rethinking their teams, tools, practices, programs, measurements, reporting and so on.

But, is agile the right fit? Few IT and product development managers question agile’s fit to their situation. Nor do they begin projects with the question, "Which approach should we use here?"

For the longest time, nobody had to ask this question, because there was a standard way to manage work: a plan-driven, predictive approach such as waterfall or PRINCE2. The process was well-documented, ubiquitous and assumed to be right.

In recent years, agile emerged as a viable, acceptable alternative to getting work done. Where you work, are plan-driven and agile approaches true alternatives, or has agile become the single new standard?

Agile or Waterfall? A Question of Suitability
Many people think of agile and waterfall in terms of right and wrong, new and old. I think the real question is that of suitability. When we work, we rely on principles that guide our choices, decisions and actions. If we apply waterfall practices (such as requirements analysis, …

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