Agile Is Not a Silver Bullet for Every Company

Agile is not a silver bullet for every company

MIS 500 #2 Op-ed

Linshuo Li

Agile methodology, a totally different project management system compared to the traditional waterfall one, is aiming at pushing the project move forward via a series of iterations called sprints, which take short period of reaction time. Becoming popular in software development field nowadays, Agile is undoubtedly better at dealing with the project with changing requirements and quick feedback from the client. However, even though Agile can benefit your organization in some way, we should to weigh the benefits against the risks before implementing Agile. Agile is not suitable for every company.

Implementing Agile requires every member participates in the collaboration actively and positively, frequent communication and feedback from colleagues and clients are basic strategies of Agile. But not every company is suitable for this mode. Usually, a large international company will have several branches and thousands of employees, the developer teams could be located in different places and time zones. Sometimes it is impossible to have an instant feedback in order to meet the requirement. What’s more, choosing the suitable person and right tools is another decisive link when carry out Agile. Imagine what if the client is not familiar with the developing process and all their feedback sounds difficult to achieve based on the investment and timeline? In this situation, the company and the client have to spend a large amount of time in reaching a new agreement every time and the efficiency of sharing information and reaching consensus with client could be a big hindrance in working under Agile.

The transition from traditional waterfall methodology to the Agile is painful, and being unable to adapt to the new structure is another reason that could cause a failure of implementing Agile. Employees with no experiences working in Agile would be confused and perform worse than before. Traditionally, employees are used to complete the entire project in a linear process, but the Agile requires a totally brand new thinking mode. You have to break down the project into small ones and finish them one by one in iterative workflow. Furthermore, for the managers who used to work under the waterfall method, it is also a challenge for them because being an Agile coach means that they shouldn’t make as much as decision for the whole team as they used to do. Instead, they should give more freedom to the members and act like a coach for the team to guide everyone involves in the project. It's more likely a different method to distribute time and a higher level of difficulty in decision-making. For those companies with most employees are not familiar with Agile, starting a project using Agile may be risky.