“Why do we use Agile?”
“What is the purpose behind it?”
You must have asked yourself these questions at least once.
Perhaps you’re among the people who think the answer is obvious — “To deliver more and quicker!”
If you are, I suggest you reconsider as this is the most common misconception about the purpose of Agile. In fact, if your answer is the above, you most likely don’t use the Agile approach at all.
The real reason for going Agile is to deliver more value to the end users. This is the cornerstone!
Achieving maximum efficiency isn’t the ultimate goal of Agile. Agile practices were introduced with end users in mind — the idea is to deliver a product that brings true value to the people that actually use it.
It might be the first time you’ve heard of it, probably half of the readers are surprised by this statement. Some of you may even disagree with it! And this is the root cause of the problem.
Think about what is your definition of a successful product.
Some would say that a successful product is one that meets the stakeholders or business requirements. But are you sure that those requirements address real customer needs? At the end of the day, customers are the ones that pay for the product, so why is their opinion so often underestimated?
We tend to see our success as the result of meeting the stakeholders' expectations, ignoring end-user satisfaction altogether.
Again, if this is obvious to you, congratulate yourself. Still, there are way too many professionals who would put the stakeholders' opinion above the end-user experience, even if the discrepancy is clearly visible.
This is a comfortable situation — you can’t be blamed for the product failure if you met the given requirements. But is that the goal?
Ask yourself a question: “Why am I doing this?”
Do you do your work just to tick the checkboxes and be paid for it, or do you want to make a difference? Do you want to truly influence somebody’s life?
“Duh, I want to make a difference! I want to change the world!”
Great! But have you ever wondered how to achieve it? Is it a matter of ticking all the boxes and fulfilling requirements, or is it about addressing a real-life problem your end user is facing?
Of course, don’t automatically assume that those two are disjunctive! A properly done analysis should make the requirements meet the needs and expectations. Unfortunately, my experience shows this is not always the case. Don’t fall into this trap.
My advice is to ask yourself the following questions, again and again:
Why am I following the Agile approach?
What is the actual goal?
Am I sure that I’m making progress towards meeting the end user’s needs and expectations?
Or am I just checking the boxes?
Find the answers to them, and you’ll never wonder why you’re using Agile.
