Tag: business value

Agile delivery: what could wait so the important work can finish?

In Tuesday’s post, I explored why agility needs boundaries: clarity about what we protect and what we can change.

Now consider what happens when those boundaries meet a difficult deadline.

There is more work left than the team can realistically finish. What changes next?

Make scope the conversation

DSDM offers a deliberate approach: protect time, cost and the agreed quality standard, then vary the features delivered.

Try bringing that thinking into your next planning conversation.

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Agility needs boundaries

Being agile means being willing to adapt. But what, exactly, are we willing to change?

Consider a team approaching a deadline with more work than it can finish. Should it extend the deadline, squeeze in extra hours, reduce testing or deliver fewer features?

That choice deserves a conversation before the pressure arrives.

Decide what to protect

DSDM, the Dynamic Systems Development Method, makes the trade-off explicit: fix time, fix cost and fix the agreed level of quality, then vary the scope.

Lower-priority requirements provide room to adapt. They can be deferred by agreement when the work proves harder than expected.

The aim is to deliver a useful solution within the agreed constraints. That requires clear priorities and enough flexibility in the feature list.

If everything is a must, there is nowhere for that flexibility to go.

Continue reading Agility needs boundaries