The argument: Agile is the better method for developing learning solutions.
ADDIE, SAM, waterfall, Agile—all are approaches that can be used by L&D professionals. And all have their advantages and disadvantages. Overall, however, does Agile come out on top?
PRO
JF GoldstynChief Learning Officer, Software Quality System
Abid Quereshi
Associate Director, Software Quality Systems
As a global IT professional services firm, we have been delivering quality assurance solutions for enterprise software applications for more than 25 years. Our client teams work in Agile teams, consult with clients on Agile transformation initiatives, and offer a portfolio of certifications such as Scrum, Certified Agile Tester, and IC Agile. So why is there such passionate debate about the right approach for applying Agile to the talent development function? Meet two team members, Waterfall William and Agile Annie, experienced learning and development professionals with opposing perspectives on the application of Agile.
William is a disciplined instructional designer and uses ADDIE as his preferred program development methodology. He points to the fact that as a global organization it is about standardization, consistency, and scalability. He emphasizes, "A global program can be periodically reviewed and modified, but certainly not regionally customized. Just think of the potential impact on global mobility and succession planning. We need specialization and distinct handoffs to ensure quality solutions." William feels that Agile is too ad hoc and potentially misses steps in a rigorous ID process.
Annie points to the fact that we live in an environment of continuous accelerated change. Programs quickly can become obsolete and out of touch with the rapidly evolving organization. You can frequently hear her saying, "My mantra is rapid prototyping and continuous improvement: Learning must reflect reality." She emphasizes the need to quickly modify courses and create solutions on the fly to address real business issues.
Annie relies on the Agile Manifesto and the most popular Agile methods for inspiration in developing better L&D programs. The simple opening statement of the Agile Manifesto, "We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it," resonates with her. The current rate of change and the diversity of customers and needs question the value of repeatable best practice. There always will be a better way, and the way to discover that is by actually doing it and sharing results with others. In other words, empiricism—the very foundation of Agile.
Like William, many waterfall proponents consider Agile methods to be ad hoc and lacking planning. On the contrary, the importance of planning is evident in the planning game of extreme programming, which consists of nested levels of planning. It helps us to analyze work at appropriate levels and sequence the delivery to ensure cohesion and relevance. The act of planning is so effective to achieve these ends that the Agile community will easily end up planning more frequently than they would in waterfall projects.
Scrum courses begin with a daily Scrum meeting where customers have input into the day, which creates a whole-team approach to learning. The feedback from the customers compels us to make continuous design improvements. Furthermore, Agile-developed courses are modular, potentially combined, or broken down, which allows content to be delivered in small releases and digested at a sustainable pace for the learners.
Educators and trainers all know the value of planning and having lesson plans. But we also know how quickly our plans become useless with aberrations in timing and attendance, or when even more valuable discussion takes flight midway through our delivery. We also know how damaging staying on course can be to the learning experience when those situations arise. Short-term sprint or iteration adjustment can help with avoiding or at least immediately addressing this.
The Standish Group conducts a survey every two years that presents project success factors and models. The Chaos Report, as it is called, reveals that Agile projects have a greater success rate than waterfall projects. The report also shows that for the most important factors leading to project success, Agile processes rank sixth or seventh.
CON
Lou RussellCEO, Russell Martin & Associates
I'm going to start with full disclosure: I was in IT process work when the original Agile Manifesto was written by a group of my male peers. The concepts of Agile at birth seemed shockingly simple and elegant, and the problems solved important. The emphasis on customer focus and involvement allowed small victories one feature at a time. It seemed a great anecdote for large, complex, monolithic software projects that frequently went nowhere with little value.
During my early career, IT moved from top-down methodologies, through iterative prototyping, and then to Agile. Today, as I watch the same progression in learning and development, I also see the same issues that plagued IT and continue to plague to this day, almost 35 years later.
With that said, now my position: No single methodology can save you. Forget it. There is no perfect methodology that will work perfectly when your customers don't show up for meetings, your project is underfunded, and nobody has time to tell you what performance change they need.
Design thinking challenges us to notice that to create performance improvement through the development of learning solutions drives two different kinds of projects: puzzles and mysteries. Depending on which you do, the best methodology to build it will be different and it still won't solve all the problems.
Here's the difference: Puzzles have a single right answer, like a jigsaw puzzle with all the pieces. Eventually you will figure it out—and if you get other people involved, they can help you get done more quickly. Mysteries, on the other hand, do not have a single right answer. These are projects that we have never done before and maybe no one else has. We know what the problem is, but there are many ways to solve it. There will be mistakes, twists, and turns to finish this project.
The idea of Agile was not to start a Mac versus PC war, but instead to offer another alternative that, in the right setting, might help improve individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration, and responding to change. Clearly, the need for these things is even greater today. I can't say this enough: Customer involvement in all methodologies is critical to success.
ADDIE is fine for some projects and Agile is fine for others. Neither gives you a 100 percent guarantee of successfully building what you think you are building or what purpose you are building it for. Your brain and your customers must still be engaged.
Here are some challenges that Agile raises:
- It's a waste of time for people with puzzles to solve. If you can get it done yourself, do it and stop bothering everyone. However, you better be totally sure that you know what you're doing.
- Agile works if there's customer buy-in and they come to the party when asked. If the wrong customers come or they don't show up until the end, you are pretty much prototyping for yourself and it's all going to be a mess at the end.
- Our business customers are spoiled and we (as an industry) did it. They like to think we build training and they don't need to be involved. If the customer does not spend time with you in design and development, you are not doing Agile. You're not doing anything useful, really.
- Change and flexibility may be difficult for L&D professionals who have always done ADDIE.
- Collaborative project management is still required to keep all the juggling going.
The most important thing to do is focus on the outcome your customer wants, and work back to establish the best methodology for your unique problem and stakeholders.
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