How do you manage external stakeholders and clients who create anti-patterns in your agile methodology?

Agile methodologies are based on principles of collaboration, adaptation, and continuous improvement. However, sometimes external stakeholders and clients can interfere with your agile process and create anti-patterns that hinder your team's performance and delivery. Anti-patterns are behaviors or practices that go against the agile values and principles, and can cause problems such as scope creep, micromanagement, unrealistic expectations, or lack of feedback. In this article, we will discuss some common agile anti-patterns caused by external stakeholders and clients, and how you can manage them effectively.

1 Identify the anti-patterns

Identifying and understanding the root causes of external stakeholders and clients who create anti-patterns is the first step to manage them. For example, frequently changing requirements without prioritization can disrupt sprint planning and backlog management, leading to wasted time and resources. Imposing deadlines or milestones not aligned with team velocity and capacity can also create pressure and stress for the team, compromising the quality of deliverables. Furthermore, requesting frequent status updates or reports that are not relevant or useful can distract the team from focusing on their tasks, creating unnecessary overhead. Lastly, giving vague or inconsistent feedback, or not giving feedback at all, can prevent the team from validating their assumptions or learning from mistakes, hindering their ability to improve and adapt.

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Sharif Islam

Senior Data Architect | PhD | Designing and Building Biodiversity Research Infrastructures | Integrating AI, Data, People & Processes | Championing Data Standards, Open Science, FAIR Principles & Open Source
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This strategy lays a strong foundation for managing stakeholder expectations. Yet, in practice, we must consider the human element. Stakeholders may not grasp agile terminology like "patterns" and "velocity." Effective communication is vital. Instead of solely conveying agile concepts, we should prioritize active listening and empathy. What are stakeholders' true concerns and needs? Design thinking principles are valuable here. By understanding their perspective and empathizing with their challenges, we can tailor our approach to resonate better. Identifying common stakeholder behaviors and their impacts remains useful. Let's focus on communicating those impacts in a human-centered way.

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2 Communicate the agile values and principles

The second step to manage external stakeholders and clients who create anti-patterns is to communicate the agile values and principles to them, and explain how they benefit both parties. You can involve them in agile ceremonies, such as sprint planning, review, and retrospective, to help them understand your team's process, progress, and challenges. Additionally, it's important to educate them on the agile concepts, such as user stories and acceptance criteria, and demonstrate the value of your deliverables. Doing so can help build trust and confidence in your team's efforts, results, and improvements.

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Rajveer Prasad

The Pragmatic Agile Coach | I coach Individuals and Enterprises succeed in MM$ Programs & Projects | Transforming Practices & Behaviour | 1:1 Consults and Cohorts
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This is a great approach but the conversation is on "external" stakeholders. External stakeholders are driven with a different purpose, it could be budget driven, or due to an existing gap in understanding, or a sense of urgency (GTM). Understanding the tigger is important. Let's say, I gave 200K to a company to have a software delivered. I did not do a thorough market research and because of that I keep changing my requirements frequently. It builds pressure on the dev team in the form of frequent backlog changes. In this case, helping me understand agile values & principles wont help. What I need is guidance on how to get clarity.

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3 Negotiate the scope and expectations

The third step to manage external stakeholders and clients who create anti-patterns is to negotiate the scope and expectations with them, and establish clear and mutual agreements. To do this, you can use the MoSCoW method to prioritize requirements based on importance and urgency, the INVEST criteria to break down requirements into manageable chunks, and the SMART goals to align your team's velocity and capacity with the stakeholder's and client's expectations. This will help you define the minimum viable product (MVP) and nice-to-have features, avoid scope creep and gold plating, as well as ambiguity and complexity, while also avoiding unrealistic deadlines.

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4 Manage the feedback and communication

The fourth step to manage external stakeholders and clients who create anti-patterns is to manage the feedback and communication with them, and foster a collaborative and transparent relationship. To do this, you should use the feedback loop to solicit, analyze, and act on their feedback. This can help validate assumptions, learn from mistakes, and improve deliverables and processes. Additionally, you should use a communication plan to define the frequency, format, and content of the status updates and reports for stakeholders and clients. This can help keep them informed and engaged while avoiding unnecessary interruptions or distractions. Lastly, an escalation matrix should be used to identify roles, responsibilities, and channels for resolving issues or conflicts with stakeholders and clients. This can help address problems promptly and effectively while avoiding escalation or damage.

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5 Adapt and improve your agile process

The fifth step to manage external stakeholders and clients who create anti-patterns is to adapt and improve your agile process based on the feedback and learning from the previous steps. You can use the retrospective to reflect on what went well, wrong, and what can be improved in your agile process. This can help you recognize the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your team and project. Additionally, you should measure and monitor your team's performance and delivery with agile metrics such as velocity, quality, satisfaction, and value. This will allow you to track your progress, achievements, and challenges, as well as adjust your plans and goals accordingly. Lastly, you should use the agile best practices such as Scrum, Kanban, XP, or Lean to implement and improve your agile process. This will help you follow proven methods and techniques for agile development while avoiding common pitfalls and mistakes.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Naresh Gudla, PMP®,SAFe®,CSM®,ITIL®,SRE

2x Top Community Voice on LinkedIn 2023, Release/Change Management, Operational & Delivery Management using lean & Agile, Service Delivery (ITIL, SRE), Technical Program/Project Manager,Data Governance, Data Management
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A few ones to consider: 1) Defining the roles and responsibilities of Stakeholders 2) Setting clear boundaries for the involvement of the stakeholders. 3) Setting up an escalation matrix and process 4) Communicating and educating stakeholders about the progress, processes

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Mrinal Ghosh

Software Development Manager | Director, MSatWork | Tax | Payments | Operations
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1. Set and communicate clear expectations for agile methodology. 2. Establish regular feedback loops with stakeholders. 3. Offer workshops on anti-patterns to raise awareness. 4. Use metrics to highlight agile's positive impact. 5. Appoint client-side agile champions for alignment. 6. Use a data driven decision approach. “In God we trust; all others bring data” 7. Attach a cost for any scope creep. Cost could be delayed timeline , investment in adding more resources or, negotiations around features to be delivered.

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How do you manage external stakeholders and clients who create anti-patterns in your agile methodology?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Identify the anti-patterns

2 Communicate the agile values and principles

3 Negotiate the scope and expectations

4 Manage the feedback and communication

5 Adapt and improve your agile process

6 Here’s what else to consider

Agile Methodologies

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How do you manage external stakeholders and clients who create anti-patterns in your agile methodology?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Identify the anti-patterns

2 Communicate the agile values and principles

3 Negotiate the scope and expectations

4 Manage the feedback and communication

5 Adapt and improve your agile process

6 Here’s what else to consider

Agile Methodologies

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