Too Many Organisations Hide Behind Excuses
Many organisations use excuses to avoid Agile, but even large, regulated bodies can adopt iterative delivery to reduce risk and deliver value …
TL;DR; The US Department of Defence has moved away from traditional waterfall delivery and now requires lean-agile approaches in its procurement rules, recognizing that agility is essential for complex, high-stakes projects. This shift is now mandated, not just recommended, showing that even large, regulated organizations can make the change. Development managers should reconsider stage-gate processes and focus on enabling real agility rather than clinging to outdated controls.
For years, the US Department of Defence was the poster child for waterfall delivery. Locked gates, stage-based approvals, and delivery dates that existed more on paper than in production.
But now? The DOD has effectively banned waterfall by rewriting its procurement rules to favour lean-agile delivery.
They’ve acknowledged what many in our industry already know: that agility isn’t optional when the stakes are high, the domain is complex, and success can’t wait five years.
This isn’t theory. It’s law. And if the DOD can shift, what excuse do the rest of us have?
If you’re still dragging delivery through stage gates, ask yourself: are you enabling agility or just maintaining the illusion of control?
Each classification [Concepts, Categories, & Tags] was assigned using AI-powered semantic analysis and scored across relevance, depth, and alignment. Final decisions? Still human. Always traceable. Hover to see how it applies.
If you've made it this far, it's worth connecting with our principal consultant and coach, Martin Hinshelwood, for a 30-minute 'ask me anything' call.
We partner with businesses across diverse industries, including finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, technology, engineering, transportation, hospitality, entertainment, legal, government, and military sectors.
Freadom
Trayport
CR2
Slaughter and May
Sage
Jack Links
Ericson
Illumina
Kongsberg Maritime
Deliotte
Higher Education Statistics Agency
Lockheed Martin
Alignment Healthcare
Lean SA
Healthgrades
Boeing
Capita Secure Information Solutions Ltd
SuperControl
New Hampshire Supreme Court
Washington Department of Transport
Washington Department of Enterprise Services
Nottingham County Council
Royal Air Force
Ghana Police Service
SuperControl
Cognizant Microsoft Business Group (MBG)
Jack Links
Ericson
Freadom
Boeing