Two weeks into mapping out a project, I realised that we’d underestimated the lead-time. We’d have to push for overtime, pushing harder and longer to meet the original deadline. You’ve probably been there before - I have! This time though, I resisted. There must be a better way!

Agile really shines here. In fact, it was agile that pointed out that the original estimates (which we thought was pessimistic) was actually still optimistic. The two weeks of user story mapping saved us a great deal of pain.

As Robert C. Martin puts it:

Planning can destroy hope… and show us just how screwed we are.

By constantly reassessing plans, Agile gives us an early warning system when things are slipping.

I used to think that the point of Agile was to be faster. The book Clean Agile argues that the point is to fail sooner.

In our case, Agile gave us an early warning system. It killed hope before hope killed the product.

Instead of going into overdrive and being a workaholic (again), we simplified scope, adjusted the deadline and found a better balance.

We like to think of this as the way of the tortoise.

How has Agile helped/impeded you and your team?