A recently published article in Havard Business Manager (by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr) rightly raises the question of whether the reliance on Agile methods goes too far. The article literally states "Agile is a powerful process for product development, but many organizations are taking it too far and using it to avoid careful planning and preparation."
In terms of content, this means that many companies deliberately avoid medium to long-term planning under the guise of agility. I consider this tendency to be dangerous and it would explain why software projects miss the target or require x times the original time or budget estimate.
The misunderstanding
The Agile Manifesto(https://agilemanifesto.org/iso/de/manifesto.html) states:
"Responding to change more than following a plan"
The "more than" is important here. Many companies and agencies confuse this point with "instead of". Planning and plans can never be ignored. A plan or a roadmap gives us certainty that we still have the goal in sight and that the path taken in the plan is currently the best way to get there.
Agile teams prioritize "reacting to change" over "following a plan" without ignoring the value a plan delivers!
"Reacting to change" must nevertheless be possible. It is therefore clear that plans must be adaptable, expandable and changeable. Today's situation may have already changed tomorrow. And this is precisely why the motto mentioned at the beginning "Plans are nothing, planning is everything" makes perfect sense.
Agile teams and plans
The development of agile teams and, in particular, scrum teams is no coincidence. These teams are not just there to stumble from sprint to sprint without a clear direction. Each sprint is a building block that is geared towards a clear goal. Managing this goal and communicating between the team and stakeholders falls to one role in the team: the Product Owner role.
The agile approach recognizes that the path between the now and the goal is not a straight line. You can simply imagine a bicycle tour:
Along the way, we encounter mountains, valleys, storms, rain, forests and many more things that we couldn't even recognize at the start. Some of these circumstances may be familiar to us, others may come as a complete surprise. This means that agile teams cannot plan everything in detail. No plan or roadmap is an exact prediction of the future. Traditional project planning approaches cannot provide this either. In the agile world, planning is therefore a continuous process. The team plans a piece, weighs up the risks, analyzes the new situation and plans again.
The approaches are varied and certainly a matter of taste. From the classic roadmap (now, then, later) to annual calendars and goal-oriented roadmaps, you can choose the plan that suits your product or team.
The main thing is that the plan is easy to adapt when the next thunderstorm comes up on the bike tour.
Agile teams often re-plan at best! Agile is often mistakenly confused with haphazard.
Conclusion
Make plans, throw them away again after a short time and continuously adapt them, but always have an up-to-date plan in your hand! This is the only way to ensure that every sprint is another building block on the way to the goal.
Once you have reached your goal, you can take the time to look at the changes in your planning. The result is usually very exciting and still not really predictable for the next project.
