The Agile Manifesto:
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.
The words: “Responding to Change over following a plan” has led to some misconceptions about Agile. For this reason, some people assume that there is no planning in Agile or planning is not given the effort it requires. The fact of the matter is, Agile does require and involves planning, the basic difference between planning in an Agile project and planning in a Waterfall project is that, in Waterfall, plans are concluded and signed off upfront even before the project commences while the Agile methodology utilizes adaptive planning; spread throughout the project and responsive to change.
Waterfall Planning
Using the Waterfall methodology necessitates that the requirements for the project are captured upfront and baselined. Having confirmed the project scope at the beginning, any changes that come up thereafter are usually not welcome. In Waterfall, it is required that detailed plans are made for scope, schedule, budget, quality, human resources, communications, risk, procurement, stakeholders, change management, configuration management and process improvement-all these before the commencement of work on the project. To make any changes to the project after the plan has been completed or the project has commenced, the new change request must go through the rigor of the change management process. An impact analysis must be performed to assess the impact of this change on the three project constraints – scope, time, and budget. The result of this research will ultimately be presented to the project sponsor and if it receives approval, a member of the project team will fill in the change request form which will in turn be submitted to the Change Control Board.
Finally, it rests with the Change Control Board to make a decision on whether this change will be approved or rejected. Some have rightly called this Change Control process a “Change Suppression” process.
Agile Planning
Unlike the Waterfall approach, Agile methods acknowledge that the level of risk and uncertainty on explorative projects make upfront planning difficult, hence, the planning effort is spread throughout the project’s lifecycle. Distributing planning in this manner positions the team to better adapt to new information.
Most knowledge work projects are intangible, and are based on research and development. Hence the requirements are difficult to capture upfront. For example, with today’s rapidly evolving technology and in a business where your success depends on your ability to exceed or at least match your competition, it is not a good business strategy to plan and sign off upfront when you do not know the new innovation(s) your competition has up its sleeves. Using the Waterfall approach, your product may be ready in say, 6 months, by that date, given the current innovation rates, your product might be obsolete before it gets to production.
That being said, most Agile projects are designed to develop new and unfamiliar products/solutions hence the unprecedented nature of the work results in new and sometimes unexpected discoveries that require a high rate of change. To address this issue, the Agile methodology has accepted to plan to replan. This is what is known as Adaptive Planning. Adaptive planning is based on the acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that early plans while necessary, are likely to be flawed and this necessitates re-planning and adaptation. In summary, Agile plans are frequently uncertain and uncertainty in turn, drives the need to replan. Colloquially, we could say that Agile utilizes a Plan-As-You-Go approach to planning.
It is safe to say that Agile involves more planning than Waterfall because at every stage of the project, planning and replanning occurs. Some of Agile’s most important ceremonies such as Sprint/Iteration Planning Meetings, Release Planning Meetings, Backlog Refinement, Daily Scrum, Sprint Reviews and Sprint Retrospectives are the activities/ceremonies during which most of its planning takes place.
In summary, and for the intent and purpose of this article, Agile methods do not exclude planning, they only take a different approach that is more suited to a quickly changing environment. In other words, Agile planning is designed to welcome/embrace change. Initially, there is a high level plan and then regularly, there is more planning and replanning throughout the project for future releases and iterations/sprints. Customer feedback based on business value (driven by a need to maximize the customer’s competitive advantage) is also an essential part of this continuous planning process.
Next week I will write some more on Agile Planning, this time focusing on the Basic Principles of Agile Planning.