Agile and sustainability go well together.

Agile is an iterative delivery framework that values human communication and feedback, adapting to change, and producing valuable results. These attributes make agile well-suited for the challenges and opportunities of sustainability. 

If you look closely you’d see Pure and Applied is an agile practice, in our ways of working and project management tools. Of course, we do this in a way that you might not exactly notice on first encounter – it’s mostly in the operational background of how we deliver for our clients. 

Neither do we expect our clients or partners to be or become familiar with agile – that’d be a bother for everyone. That said, we do see value in the approach, and so what follows is a little of why and the how we do things this way. 

The uncertainty of sustainability

Sustainability challenges and opportunities – the kind found in the projects we’re delivering – have an elements of uncertainty, discovery and innovation. New answers to new problems, we sometimes say. The starting point for the thorniest sustainability challenges can be a classic case of VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. To that we could add rapidly evolving and dynamic. 

Then there’s the need to respond to what stakeholders and senior leaders are seeking and asking of the process. Also the changing expectations and needs of customers and communities, shareholders, investors and regulators. 

What’s the problem to be solved? In what way ought it best be addressed? What are the boundaries? What if that first draft strategy, framework, roadmap or plan does not validate well against the inevitable tests it will encounter with stakeholders or unfolding external conditions. We need to change direction, quickly and smoothly. 

Firm plans lack the flexibility needed as discovery leads to a refined problem definition, and even a realisation along the way that the work needs to change direction mid project, with no slackening of pace – to still deliver within a timebox and budget. 

Agile is how we handle these necessary adaptations, and still and deliver at a cadence which provides continual value to the client.

How do we go about it?

You could stop reading there if the innards aren’t of deep interest (and for those familiar with agile, it’s simply a slightly adjusted Scrum). 

What follows then is for the committedly curious – our house approach to the classic framework elements.

Problem definition

• Project definition for a shared understanding of outcomes, and for confirming the project approach, This is how we begin any project. See the separate post on Project Definition, which provides clarity, certainty and momentum at the start of the project.

Cycles, sprints and iterations

• Cycle-based working for a regular cadence, and sprints when needed. We have a fortnightly cadence, and sprints (or stages if you prefer) typically take place over two or three cycles. 
• Finished intermediate outputs. As often as we can, we provide finished outputs for closing out studies, cycles, sprints or stages of work. A bracket of work culminates in an output in your hands. 
• Iterative releases of work products – such as a strategy, roadmap or plan – for review and feedback. We have a progressive build from storyboard to bronze, silver, gold. We have a progressive build from storyboard to bronze, silver, gold. Each iteration has greater extent, confidence and resolution.

Co-ordination

• Client steering group co-ordinations held fortnightly. We like to stay in touch with our clients on a fortnightly basis. More often around complex or high stakes work. 
• Cycle planning. We plan our work out in fortnights, and would normally make changes to the work or approach on this timeframe. Sometimes things change quicker than that, and we can be very nimble for this need. 
• Team daily stand-ups daily for internal co-ordination. Yes, it’s just Siobhan and I, but we still do this each day for clarity on what matters.  Yes, we stand up.

Continual improvement

• Cycle retrospectives for continual improvement and lessons learnt. This is how we get better each cycle. 
• Work output reviews for rapid feedback and confirmation.
• Stage (or sprint) lessons learnt. After a deliverable, collaboration or project stage we have a hot debrief for rapid lessons learnt. This enables us to course-correct any aspect of the work. 

Tools

• Kanban boards for awareness. We use Jira. This is how we allocate work amongst ourselves.  
• Online whiteboards for collaboration and innovation. We use Miro. 

The Scrum pattern

The Scrum framework is our basic pattern for agile delivery. Scrum is a generally applicable, and trusted tool for any kind of expert team delivery. It’s well-described in the Scrum Guide, and though exact and particular, not too geeky if you’re intrepid. 

Let’s yarn

For our fit to your challenges, check out the focus areas of Pure and Applied: 

• Deforestation in the food system
• Sustainable technology, DCs and responsible AI
• Sustainability capability in business leadership
• Cross-sectoral and value chain resilience

Agile skills sharing for sustainability

And get in touch if you’re interested to hear more about agile for delivery in your own sustainability team. I’d be happy to share.

– Adrian