Blog Series: Did You Pack the 12 Agile Principles on Your Agile Journey? Pt. 8: Sustainability

At CapTech, we believe the 12 Agile Principles from the Agile Manifesto are building blocks for a successful, sustainable Agile journey. Many pitfalls that organizations experience are due to oversight and lack of adherence to the Agile Principles. In this CapTech blog series, we will review the 12 Agile Principles, common issues that lead organizations astray, and solutions to get back on course throughout any Agile journey.

Agile Principle #8: Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

Common Issues that Lead Organizations Astray

• Planning is not continuous or consistent causing imbalance in work load and flow.
• The expected pace to do and complete work has been set by someone(s) other than the worker.
• More is more - there is a desire for more functionality to be pushed to the Customer.
• Internal processes and approvals are complicated and cumbersome creating unnecessary overhead that leads deters a sustainable pace.
• There is a lack of advocacy for a sustainable pace.

Solutions that Lead Organizations Back on Course

• Define a continuous planning lifecycle that balances work weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. Avoid low and high tides of work to create a steady flow.
• Empower teams to set their own pace and allow them to adjust it when appropriate.
• More functionality may not actually deliver more value to the Customer. Be thoughtful about what functionality needs to be completed, and be sure to follow up and verify that the solutions being created are actually providing value.
• Find the path of least resistance. Start with or scale back to simple, lean processes and approvals. Only incorporate additional workflows when the desired outcome is not being achieved.
• Advocate for a pace that promotes continuous delivery. Allow for flexibility within scope or time and focus on a sustainable pace of value being delivered to the Customer.

Blog Series: Did you Pack the 12 Agile Principles on Your Agile Journey?

• Part 1: Deliver Value
• Part 2: Changing Requirements
• Part 3: Deliver Frequently
• Part 4: Work Together
• Part 5: Motivated Individuals
• Part 6: Face-to-Face Conversation
• Part 7: Working Solutions
• Part 8: Sustainability
• Part 9: Technical Excellence
• Part 10: Simplicity
• Part 11: Self-Organizing Teams
• Part 12: Reflect