Agile isn't an excuse to not do the things you don't like!

The other day I was discussing agile, and one of the remarks was that agile doesn't work because there was no project planning. A lot of times planning is thrown overboard because the project does things the “agile” way. However in my opinion agile is never an excuse not to do the things you don't like to do! Your clients expect a plan, and the project team needs a purpose. There is a sprint planning, backlog grooming and there should always be a focus on the business case. The power of Agile is that you can adjust your planning to new insights along the way, your plan isn't sacred and should be flexible.

Adjust your planning to new insights along the way, your plan isn't sacred and should be flexible.

The project team (that includes the client as well) should discuss the goals of the project. But this goal should be flexible so that you can adjust your plan based on information that is gathered during the project. The business case, development complexity, needs from customers, a lot of things can change during a project. If you have good backlog grooming sessions, set your priorities right and have clear communication it is possible to adjust to change and deliver quality projects.

If there is no plan, one of the fundamental things in your team is missing: communication. Which leads to over-engineering, software that doesn't work or worse software that costs a lot but doesn't meet client expectations.

Don't throw away your plans just because you don't like to give bad news.

Don't throw away your plans just because you don't like to give bad news, but see it as an opportunity to improve communication within the team and help your client set the priorities right! Don't overplan either.