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.
A while ago, I was sitting in a meeting where we were discussing a request that had come in to amend something on the website.
“When do they want it to be done by?” someone said.
“All they said was ‘ASAP’.”
Ah, the classic “as soon as possible” – the Schrödinger’s deadline of project management.
Here’s a handy ‘guide’ of possible meanings and timescales of “as soon as possible”:
“I don’t control deadlines, but I do control guilt.” Today, ideally before lunch
“My boss just walked past my desk and asked about it.” 1–3 hours
“I’ll start emailing you hourly if it’s not done.” 24 hours
“I want to look reasonable, but I also mean yesterday.” 1 day
“Before I forget I asked you.” 2–3 days
“Whenever you have a quiet moment … which I know you never do.” 3–5 days
“I have absolutely no idea when I actually need this.” 1–2 weeks
ASAP vs SLA
A better approach is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) – agree upfront what ‘urgent’ actually means by combining impact (who’s affected) with urgency (is there a workaround, is there a real deadline).
Then the priority is set by the rules, not by whoever types ‘ASAP’ in all caps. Because ‘ASAP’ isn’t a deadline. It’s a feeling.
Something that I’ve been playing around with for the last few months in my to do app of choice, Todoist, is seeing if I find value in using the Eisenhower matrix to help me prioritise tasks.
But I have encountered a stumbling block when I consider this for use in a personal context: what do I with the “Delegate” label (urgent but not important)?
