Going Agile: Don’t Forget About The Future!

(this blog has been reproduce from goingagile.org)

When working with Agile, make sure to define your long term strategy that gives direction to your product backlog.

The Ubuntu Certification programme follows the beat of the 6 monthly release cadence. In the certification team we run a two week iteration cadence.  It is a continuous delivery machine! The danger is for your ambitions to get stuck in the quick rhythm.

Regardless if I am working with a product or a service team, I found it important to set a clear vision to aim for. The constant cadence of Agile is normally riddle with changes in priorities. While this enables the team to remain flexible, I have found that can be confusing for the individual: “Tell me again why are we doing this?”

Having a clear vision or product road map doesn’t only benefit your team, but also your stakeholders. I often find that a lack of a shared vision creates a mistrust – “This iteration could be the last one. Quick, I better ask for everything I need at once! Everything is high priority!”, sounds familiar?

Sharing a common set of principles and aspiration to deliver great value is sometimes confused with the need to have a committed  two-year plan. To remain competitive, I rather stop second guessing the future and build working practices that allow for change and make people comfortable working with the unknown.