The #1 mistake in Agile Project Management

It’s been over 12 years since I read the life-changing Agile Software Development with Scrum by Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle. I’ve been a big proponent of Agile in every organization I’ve worked with since, including Microsoft and DocuSign. Now, in the position of directing 4 engineering teams that execute Scrum in parallel, I continuously see one mistake that almost all agile practitioners make: they think that taking the Agile approach means they don’t need a plan.

Engineers who use Scrum or Kanban often hesitate when it comes to long-term roadmaps. The most common rebuttal: “this is not agile! We’re going to plan one sprint, adjust our backlog, then re-evaluate in two weeks.” Of course this see-what-happens style of project management appeals to engineers, but it doesn’t work very well for big projects that require marketing, partnerships, customer rollouts, or other external coordination. This a frequent predicament.

Then the question arises: how do you reconcile Agile development with planning a marketing blitz or roadshow 6 months in advance? An engineer can’t just tell the marketing team, “we don’t know what features we will have in the product... we don’t know when they’re going to be done... we’re just going to go sprint by sprint and we’ll let you know what we’ve created by then.”

The answer for synchronizing Agile with planning is to shift the perception of what Agile means. Contrary to common assumption, being Agile is not based on an inherent lack of planning. Rather, Agile is about getting feedback as quickly as possible and adjusting plans accordingly.

Early in my Agile career, someone gave me a useful analogy. It goes like this:

Just like with driving, software development is full of surprises. There are virtual detours, stop lights, crazy drivers, and flat tires.  And just like with driving, a virtual detour doesn’t mean you’re not going to arrive at your destination. It does mean, though, that you might need to drive a little faster to make up for lost time or let your friends know that you’ll be a few hours late.  

The beauty of Agile is that it encourages engineers to identify surprises as early as possible and adjust plans accordingly. That way, software teams don’t leave their colleagues hanging at the last minute or waste months pursuing the wrong goals.