Five Agile Pitfalls

Five Agile Pitfalls Mike Griffiths July 19, 2010

Extreme Project Management

Agile methods are powerful approaches that bring many benefits to how we undertake project work. However, they are not immune to misuse or failure. The following list of five common pitfalls is often seen in organizations switching to agile. As they say: “To be forewarned is to be forearmed.” So look out for these pitfalls and if you see any developing, a side step can be useful to help avoid the mistakes of others.

1. Agile as a silver bullet.Yes, agile methods can save time, increase business buy-in and create a high quality product, but they are no silver bullet. They will not bend space or time and allow you to deliver more work that is possible within the constraints of limited time, budget and resources.

Deciding to switch a doomed project to an agile approach will not make it succeed. You may fail faster, or at least discover realistic progress indicators (velocity) earlier than with a traditional approach--but unachievable goals will remain unachievable. By all means use an agile approach to salvage a core set of valuable functionality from a failing project, but don’t expect agile methods to miraculously make the impossible possible.

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