Agile at Work/ Driving Productive Agile Meetings -2B- Delivering Without Scope

In order to prevent a project from over delivering, a scope is used to determine the what and how of the product. In most formal projects, scope is generally created before any budgets or scheduling are completed. These three components make up what is called the ‘iron triangle’ and each are tied to one another, with one simple change affecting the other two. But generally, scope is devised using an already created budget and schedule that will remain constant for the entirety of the project. Scope can also be affected by the product owner when they reorder the needs, generally prioritizing what they feel is the highest value, and in this case the ‘iron triangle’ can be turned on its head.

Agile can be thought of as a ‘iron vase’ with each side signifying the cost and the schedule, with the volume of the vase being filled with as much scope as the schedule and cost allow for. This does not mean agile teams can deliver sub-par products, which can’t be considered for agile’s definition of ‘done’. Each component, scope, cost, and schedule are determined at the start of each agile project and take one of these two ‘iron’ concepts. There are two ways to apply these and they can be called either ‘traditional’ or the other ‘agile’. The ‘agile’ direction will end up declaring the schedule and cost rather swiftly, and the scope of the project does not need defining, so development begins immediately. Highest value items are filled in the iron vase within the constraints of the project schedule. The ‘traditional’ way would be to define all functionality first, then he team can begin working. Both projects can be delivered on time, but a traditional method would create larger difficulties in being able to make any significant changes because a major portion of the cost and schedule have already been used during the planning phase. This would cause a sponsor to abandon things after already putting in a large amount of resources and investment and possible restart with a entirely new scope, cost, schedule that is better defined. Sponsors need to mainly understand that they are relinquishing some form of flexibility and that they can be more successful if there are fewer changes being made. As team members, we need to understand that development projects can be unpredictable and always subject to change and that is why it can be simpler to deliver projects without a scope defined. Agile projects fill scope with the highest valued items and give much needed flexibility to agile teams.

Works Cited

"Planning the Release Schedule." Lynda.com - from LinkedIn, www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-	tutorials/Planning-release-schedule/175075/437994-4.html. Accessed 17 Nov. 2017.

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