Does it work at all? Let’s dig into Agile’s origins.

Fixed scope clashes violently with the flexibility so fundamental to Agile approaches.

Agile needs a different mindset than methodically working through the lines of a requirements list. The ‘delivery what we agreed’ of fixed scope, against the ‘respond to change’ of Agile.

For a moment, let’s imagine we’re a project manager. A bloody good one. One who prides themselves on our ability to solve challenging puzzles. To make complex things appear simple.

We’re face to face with a new client. This client has insisted on a fixed scope and fixed price project. They won’t budge on the expectatio. Both sided has signed the contract (or SOW) which includes this fixed scope clause.

We’ve had zero involvement up to this point. Which means we couldn’t have done anything different. So we need to work out how to pull something brilliant out of the bag.

Turning to the client, we call a short meeting break. We head to a quiet breakout room and scream into a cushion for several seconds.

Once we’ve recovered our composure, we start to wonder; Can Agile still deliver success with a fixed scope?

What do successful projects look like? Is it about profitability? Is it about making clients happy? A proud team? Or always hitting deadlines?

Success often means the avoidance of potential failures. And failure avoidance is about surfacing and mitigating risk.

Risk to project delivery comes in many forms. Complete failure is luckily rare. Most project risks only reduce the amount of success that can be achieved, and value that can be created.

Modern agencies serve many concurrent clients. Every one is different. They come with distinct requirements and people. Every project is unique. With new outcomes and deliverables.

Risk needs consideration and review before every new project.

A new client walks through your door with a big pot of money and no plans for how to spend it. A rare creature indeed.

More likely, the client will share some details about what they see a project creating and the reason for their business needing it.

You might call these initial details sandcastles. The plans may look well-defined and considered, but it’s not ready to be a forever thing. 

They may have been planned without any evidence that it will actually work. It could be lacking input from people with the right experience. It might be too simple or too complex. There are plenty of opportunities to discuss making changes to the plan or even starting again.