Agile and Changing Requirements or Design
I hear this (or some version) more frequently in recent years than in past:
Agile is all about changing requirements at anytime during a project, even at the very end.
I attribute the increased frequency to the increased popularity of Agile methods and practices.
That the "Responding to change over following a plan" Agile Manifesto value is cherry picked so frequently is probably due to a couple of factors:
It's human nature for a person to resist being cornered into doing something they don't want to do. So this value gets them out of performing a task.
The person doesn't understand the problem or doesn't have a solution. So this value buys them time to figure out how to solve the problem. Once they do have a solution, well, it's time to change the design or the requirements to fit the solution. This reason isn't necessary bad unless it's the de facto solution strategy.
The intent behind the "Responding to change" value, and the way successful Agile is practiced, does not allow for constant and unending change. If this were otherwise nothing would ever be completed and certainly nothing would ever be released to the market.
I'm not going to rehash the importance of the preposition in the value statement. Any need to explain the relativity implied by it's use has become a useful signal for me to spend my energies elsewhere. But for those who are not challenged by the grammar, I'd like to say a few thing about how to know when change is appropriate and when it's important to follow a plan.
The key is recognizing and tracking decision points. With traditional project management, decisions are built-in to the project plan. Every possible bit of work is defined and laid out on a Gantt chart, like the steel rails of a train track. Deviation from this path would be actively discouraged, if it were considered at all.
Using an Agile process, decision points that consider possible changes in direction are built into the process - daily scrums, sprint planning, backlog refinement, reviews and demonstrations at the end of sprints and releases, retrospectives, acceptance criteria, definitions of done, continuous integration - these all reflect deliberate opportunities in the process to evaluate progress and determine whether any changes need to be made. These are all activities that represent decisions or agreements to lock in work definitions for short periods of time.
For example, at sprint planning, a decision is made to complete a block of work in a specified period of time - often two weeks. After that, the work is reviewed and decisions are made as to whether or not that work satisfies the sprint goal and, by extension, the product vision. At this point, the product definition is specifically opened up for feedback from the stakeholders and any proposed changes are discussed. Except under unique circumstances, changes are not introduced mid-sprint and the teams stick to the plan.
Undoing decisions or agreements only happens if there is supporting information, such as technical infeasibility or a significant market shift. Undoing decisions and agreements doesn't happen just because "Agile is all about changing requirements." Agile supports changing requirements when there is good reason to do so, irrespective of the original plan. With traditional project management, it's all about following the plan and change at any point is resisted.
This is the difference. With traditional project management, decisions are built-in to the project plan. With Agile they are adapted in.
Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash