A recent article in the Harvard Business Manager (by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr) rightly raises the question of whether the rigid adherence to Agile methods is going too far. The article states, verbatim: “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 essence, this means that many companies are deliberately avoiding medium- to long-term planning under the guise of agility. I consider this trend dangerous, and it would explain why software projects fail to meet their goals or end up taking many times longer than the original time or budget estimates.
The Misunderstanding
The Agile Manifesto (https://agilemanifesto.org/iso/de/manifesto.html) states:
"Responding to change over following a plan"
The key phrase here is “more than.” Many companies and agencies confuse this point with “instead of.” Planning and plans can never be ignored. A plan or roadmap gives us the assurance that we still have our goal in sight and that the path outlined in the plan is currently the best way to get there.
Agile teams prioritize "responding to change" over "following a plan"—without ignoring the value that a plan provides!
"Responding to change" must still be possible. So it’s clear that plans must be adaptable, expandable, and modifiable. Today’s situation may already have changed by tomorrow. And that’s exactly why the motto mentioned at the beginning—“Plans are nothing, planning is everything”—makes perfect sense.
Agile Teams and Plans
The formation of agile teams—and Scrum teams in particular—is no accident. These teams aren’t just there to stumble from sprint to sprint without a clear direction. Each sprint is a building block geared toward a clear goal. Managing this goal and facilitating communication between the team and stakeholders falls to one specific role within the team: the Product Owner.
The agile approach recognizes that the path between the present and the goal is not a straight line. Just imagine a bike ride:
Along the way, we encounter mountains, valleys, storms, rain, forests, and many other things we couldn’t even foresee at the start. Some of these circumstances may be familiar to us, while others 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. Even traditional project planning approaches cannot provide this. In the agile world, therefore, planning is a continuous process. The team plans a section, weighs the risks, analyzes the new situation, and plans again.
There are many different approaches, and it’s certainly a matter of personal preference. From the classic roadmap (Now, Next, Later) to annual calendars and goal-oriented roadmaps, you can choose the plan that best suits your product or team.
The main thing is that the plan is easy to adjust when the next storm rolls in during your bike ride.
Ideally, agile teams frequently revise their plans! People often mistakenly confuse "agile" with "unplanned."
Conclusion
Make plans, discard them after a short time, and continuously adjust them—but always have an up-to-date plan on hand! This is the only way to ensure that every sprint is another building block on the path to your goal.
Once you’ve reached your goal, take the time to look back at the changes made to the plan. The results are usually quite fascinating—and yet still not really predictable for the next project.
