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! ;)