Brexit... The Riddle

I have been quiet for two years. I still cannot digest the result of the referendum. Did you watch the last American Horror Stories series? Well, I am nowhere close to that, but I am terrified by the idea that someone, on the Leave side, would be as obsessed as I am about the whole thing. The Referendum saw a heterogenous alliance on each side. On the Leave side, there were some Remainers. On the Remain side some Leavers. Between all of them, Borsi Johnson that decided last minute whether he was a leaver or a Remainer. On the Remain side there was the SNP. The SNP is the party that wants to leave the UK but stay in Europe and still have the Queen (bless her) as head of state and the pound. So the SNP is a Leave UK and a Remain in the EU party. Leaving the EU should increase their chances to leave the UK, but they still keep fighting to keep the whole Union in the EU. Is this normal? I am not sure. We have then the Leavers that, most of them, are against Scotland leaving the UK. Oh well... Not sure how this works in their minds. We have a Parliamentary democracy but the minority Government, not only is in power but also suspends the Parliament because her Majesty The Queen (bless her, again) has to read the document written by a Government, that has called for an early election, because a minority in Parliament, for the year to come. (Note that they ade themselves a minority by expelling 21 MPs one shot a week ago) I am sure that if you are outside of the UK, in a country with civil law, you will find hard to understand. Well, we start feeling the same. No worries. We have an executive power, that asks the Queen (bless her again and again) to suspend the Parliament by sending in the Peers... Amazing isn't it that the Executive power tells the Queen (bless here again and again and again), on their behalf to suspend a legitimate Parliament. Then we got the judiciary power that tells the Executive power that suspending the law-making power is unlawful... On top of this, we have the Parliament that blocks the executive power and tells them what to do and what to write, disregarding the fact that the Government is in charge of their policies. Wow... It is not over. The Withdrawal Agreement, agreed by Theresa May (rest politically in peace) has been boycotted 3 times because of the Irish backstop. Those who are against the backstop, though, are against physical barriers between the two Irelands. They are the same that are against a physical barrier and a no-deal that will lead to a certain, 100% sure, physical barrier between the two Irelands. The Irish representatives in London are not the real expression of the Northern Irish electorate, as you certainly know. British Ireland voted to remain in the EU (and Ireland) but they are not represented and when everyone talks about the "People's will" they forget that Ireland voted to remain in. What about Wales? They voted to leave but their nationalist representatives, Plaid Cymru, are determined to stay. I spare you with so many other idiosyncracies we are assisting at in this country, but this gives you an idea of what the hell is going on. So, please, my European friends, don't ask me what the hell is going to happen because we are in Alice in Wonderland here and not the polished version of it. Get your popcorns and enjoy the show. Laugh, cry and just let's see how it ends. If it will ever end.

Is Agile compatible with Fixed Scope Projects?

Agile, intended as a monolith methodology, and fixed scope can be compatible but not in all environments. Cost, time, scope are the main variables. Let one free to move and the others will rotate and move around it. PRINCE2 Agile is well aware of this and they have adapted the methodology to suit such cases. The incremental delivery aspects of Agile sometimes are not needed because the scope of the project is fixed and there is no need for an intermediate product. In this case, the team will need to report progresses and show and tell will be a simple status report, marking the tasks in a Project Plan or even in JIRA with the completion mark. Is this waterfall? Well, not necessarily. Some aspects of Agile can be preserved even in these cases, but we are outside of the boundaries of the orthodoxy.

For the joy of all of those who do love Standups, these can be preserved. So the sprints. The Scrum Master, now more of a project manager or coordinator, can still do his job as the issues with fixed scope or not, are the same. The Product owner becomes more of a very busy man at the beginning of the project and then slowly disappears and is called in only for periodical reports. Backlog is still there but it is more part of a Project Plan, as it is used to benchmark (burndown chart?). The Business Analyst and the Developers are still fully occupied and the QAs can still assure the quality of what has been developed. And if you love stories, well, you can still ask the BA to enjoy him/herself with that. So overall, yes, it is possible to run a project like this in Agile, as long as the agility is in your mind.

What if you don't deliver? Well, it is not the methodology that failed you, probably were other aspects like the inability to estimate properly at the time of writing the business case and all the documents that follow that. Perhaps the signposts have been moved. I mean, it can be just anything that makes a project (Agile and not) fail and not linked to the methodology.

So, don't forget that your main objective is to deliver a product, not to prove that a methodology is better than another. The way you arrange your work is important but it is aimed at delivering. Good luck with all those regulatory projects! ;)