I was recently asked if Agile and 'R&D' go together. The issue at hand: how do you reconcile agile's call for product delivery to users every few weeks with the unknowns and false starts in a real R&D project?
Good question! I'm glad you asked.
Let's start with OPM ... Other people's money ... And the first question: What have you committed to do? There are two possible answers: (1) apply your best efforts; or (2) work to "completion".
Of course, (1) may be embodied in (2) -- why wouldn't you always apply your best efforts? -- but in the R&D domain (2) is often not a requirement and may be a bridge too far: -- got a completion cure for cancer? "Completion" means more than just effort; it has elements of accomplishment and obtained objectives.
"Completion" is problematic in the R&D domain: completion implies a reasonable knowledge of scope, and that may be impractical depending on the balance of the "R" with the "D". Heavy "R" implies very limited idea of the means to accomplish; "D" is the flip of that.
Of course, (1) may be embodied in (2) -- why wouldn't you always apply your best efforts? -- but in the R&D domain (2) is often not a requirement and may be a bridge too far: -- got a completion cure for cancer? "Completion" means more than just effort; it has elements of accomplishment and obtained objectives.
"Completion" is problematic in the R&D domain: completion implies a reasonable knowledge of scope, and that may be impractical depending on the balance of the "R" with the "D". Heavy "R" implies very limited idea of the means to accomplish; "D" is the flip of that.
The most constraining example of "completion" is Firm Fixed Price -- whether by contract or just project charter. FFP is almost never -- dare I say never? -- appropriate for R&D
And so now let's layer on Agile ... what's in and what's out vis a vis R&D:
Among the agile practices that are "IN" (in no particular order)
- Conversational requirements ("I want to cure cancer")
- Prototypes, models, and analysis (even, gasp! Statistics and calculus, though some would argue that no such ever occurs in an agile project)
- Periodic reflection and review of lessons learned
- Small teams working on partitioned scope
- Trust and collaboration within the team
- Skills redundancy
- Local autonomy
- Persistent teams, recruited to the cause
- PM leadership to knock down barriers (servant leadership model)
- Lean bureaucracy
- Emphasis on test and verification
- Constant refactoring
- Frequent CI (integration and regression verification with prior results)
- Definite narrative of what's to be accomplished (Nylon was an accident)
- Product architecture
- Commitment to useful product every period
- Intimate involvement of the user/customer (who even knows who they might be when it is all "DONE"?)
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