What Agile development’s like for clients

Agile is fast and flexible, it’s just not that compatible with marketing

Written by Olivia Osmond

I’m web content manager here at the National Skills Academy for IT. Our web development agency is using the Agile approach to software development on our site. Many of you will be aware of its principles already, and I thought that I’d let you know what the Agile experience is like as a client, working in marketing.

Firstly Agile is, well, agile. Stating the obvious there, but that makes it pretty unique as a project management methodology. That’s what makes it perfect for website development. It acknowledges that things can change. It appreciates that great ideas or a change of priorities can come while you’re right in the middle of projects, and it can cope with that without getting derailed. That’s something that’s truly spectacular for clients.

On the other hand, what I find really difficult to get my head around is the way that timeframes work with Agile. So often, us digital marketers will ask a question like, “We want to add widget x to the site as part of the next big marketing push due in 2 weeks’ time. Can you sort it?” This can be met with a reminder that the developers are working through a list of requirements and things will get done when they get done, with a question of where it should go on the list.

If we are going to add widget x to our website, we need to plan in all of the communications and marketing to make sure that our customers are aware of it and use it when it’s live. To do this, we need to know when it will be ready. This means that I can build internal approving time, copy drafting and refining into my project plan. For me there’s nothing like a deadline to get things going. So, I need to know when I absolutely have to send the full requirements and copy over to the developers to get my widget done in time to get screen grabs to add to the email marketing campaign and to make sure the that campaign materials are on the site. You see, for marketing, Agile only works if we’re included in the whole approach, from the start. We can’t send the press release out when we fancy, we can’t leave the campaign landing page until after we’ve sorted the email newsletter. We have to run integrated campaigns to a specific time. While sometimes you can be flexible with your timescales, often timing is more important than whether you should use this word or that. For this reason, the Agile approach feels alien, unless it’s seen as a way of running business and not just technical development projects. Marketing needs to be included and be able to influence each iteration. Agile’s fantastically flexible and fast, and can be a great methodology if implemented holistically.