I was reading about how DWP dropped agile from a flagship government software project and I thought if there was ever an industry that could benefit from adopting an agile approach is would be the public sector. Government projects have a reputation of being delivered late and above budget. While this is clearly not the case for all government project nevertheless by adopting an agile approach would help manage and prioritise releases.

Here is a quick list of how the Government can benefit from adopting an agile approach:

• Catch issues early – End of sprint reviews allows stakeholders to view progress and can catch issues early on. Any amendments can be planned in to subsequent sprints. This is different to a waterfall methodology where there is pressure to get things right first time and thus teams may not be agile enough to re-prioritise.
• Adapt quickly – The project team would be smaller and more agile to deal with changing priorities and would be focused on the product being delivered.
• Less hierarchy – Government projects can be bogged down with paper work and time consuming discussions. With Agil, its all about having face to face meetings. This leads to a more collaborative work environment and teams are focused on achieving tasks.
• Fluid processes – Teams are empowered to make decisions and remove any impediments. Processes are discussed as a team and adopted or rejected based on how well tasks are completed. Retrospective meetings provide a platform to review sprints and adopt more efficient processes.
• Big picture analysis – Government projects historically have been known to be too focused on departmental priorities rather then delivering products that meet the needs of citizens. Within a project, there should be time allocated for research/studies to ensure that products being built is ‘fit for purpose’ from users point of view. Design decisions should be based on data and user testing rather then views and opinions. Agile allows for such analysis and research to be done through either analysis stories or design spikes. The outcome of the research then can be used to enhance the product.
• Customer representation – The customer is an active member and therefore a customer representative will be available on the project to answer questions. Stakeholder’s are kept up to date of progress and therefore the possibility of the project slipping in terms of deadlines are minimised.

While many people may ask if the government could afford adopting an agile approach, I would ask if the government could afford not to be agile particularly with so much attention on projects delivering value for money.

Agile, if used properly, will make projects transparent, leaner and more efficient. This may not happen overnight as it takes time for teams to learn and try different processes in order to see which works best. The more projects become agile, the more government can learn from delivering each project.