What Agile Expects from Stakeholders

A point that is often overlooked in considering whether Agile methodologies are right for an organization is that it is much more demanding of stakeholders than traditional methods. Stakeholders are required to stay involved during the project (typically through a single representative voice) and will be asked to evaluate progress and provide feedback and suggestions.

The Agile development methodology puts much more demand on Stakeholder involvement in the product development process than traditional development methodologies. Historically there has been an extended period of elapsed time during which there is no involvement of stakeholders in the development process. This period begins after the "final" specification is written and "thrown over the transom" to engineering. Agile is different because stakeholders, either directly or through their representative, provide feedback to the development team on a regular (often daily or weekly) basis. In addition, stakeholders are in control of development priorities, so they must determine product direction based on business decisions. The development team is waiting for their next set of marching orders and they can't go it alone!

This may seem like a lot to ask of stakeholders, but would you contract to have a custom house built without checking in on progress before it is finished? Not unless you feel particularly lucky. This is despite the fact that your builder has blueprints and a complete "specification", and has probably done something similar many times before! Most people want to have a chance to affect the outcome of things that are important to them (or their company) before it is too late or too expensive to make a change. Yet, completing a software development project often costs more than completing a high-end luxury home. Why would we leave the outcome to chance? With Agile methodologies, you no longer have to.