Understanding Adaptive Planning in Agile with examples

Adaptive Planning in Agile

In today's article we'll discuss one of the very common Agile practices that is adaptive planning. Adaptive planning involves creating plans that are flexible and can evolve based on ongoing feedback and changing conditions. It’s a departure from traditional rigid planning where every detail is specified upfront. If you are a planner, it might feel like a loss of control when you don’t plan every detail of your project upfront.

But there are some advantages. Adaptive planning allows teams to change their course of action quickly and efficiently as new information becomes available or as circumstances change. This means the plan always reflects the current reality of the project, market conditions, or customer needs.

By continuously revisiting and adjusting the plan, teams can incorporate lessons learned from previous Iterations or Sprints. This refinement gives teams an opportunity to inspect and improve their processes a little at a time. This can help keep the project on track as it progresses, without the need for major change control.

Why Adaptive Planning is so useful?

Adaptive planning helps to spot risks and address them early and often. By not committing to a long-term plan without flexibility, teams can adjust their strategy to address potential risks as they become apparent. Having an agile mindset means prioritizing flexibility over sticking to a rigid plan. By valuing adaptability, you reduce the pressure to get things perfect the first time, and instead, you can focus on evolving through iterative improvements. It's much easier to adapt to change when you avoid overplanning.

This concept is very much in line with Agile principles, which advocate for flexibility and responsiveness over rigid, detailed, long-term planning. Here are a few reasons why less rigid planning can facilitate easier changes. Overplanning often leads to a high level of commitment to specific actions and outcomes, which can make deviating from the plan more difficult and costly.

By keeping plans more flexible, you’re less likely to encounter significant resistance or sunk-cost fallacy when change is needed. Sunk-cost fallacy occurs when people feel they can’t abandon a decision because of the amount they’ve already invested, even when it’s clear that it’s no longer a viable or an optimal choice.


Agile methodologies encourage planning in short, manageable increments. This allows teams to assess the situation at regular intervals and adapt their plans based on current realities and feedback. Iterative planning makes it easier to integrate changes without disrupting the entire project.

By not overplanning, teams can remain open to learning from each Iteration or Sprint and then responding appropriately. This ongoing learning process is critical in environments where conditions, technologies, and user needs can change rapidly.

Overplanning can sometimes lead to analysis paralysis where too much time is spent on planning every detail instead of moving forward. Less comprehensive upfront planning can lead to quicker decisions and adjustments as new information emerges.

I just mentioned the concept of analysis paralysis. If you have ever experienced this, it can truly feel like you're stuck. Maybe you or your team is unable to make a decision. As you spend time overanalyzing a situation because you don’t really have all of the information you need, perhaps there are a lot of what-ifs, so you have to explore every possible scenario to make sure you’re prepared.

Just-in-Time decision making:

Just-in-Time decision making refers to the process of making decisions as they are needed rather than attempting to predict and plan for every decision in advance. When we plan well in advance, things can change, and some of the work we’ve done can become unnecessary and a waste of our time and energy.

Just-in-Time decisions are made based on the current context and needs, which means that resources are allocated more efficiently and only as necessary. This approach reduces wastes associated with the energy spent on what eventually becomes outdated plans.

Making decisions just in time allows teams to leverage the latest data, technology, and insights. This flexibility can lead to better outcomes as decisions are informed by the most relevant and current information.

Just-in-Time decision making can foster a culture of innovation because teams are encouraged to think on their feet and come up with creative solutions to emerging challenges or opportunities. By focusing on the most immediate needs, teams can prioritize more effectively, concentrating on what delivers the highest value now. This helps in managing the workload and ensures that critical issues are addressed promptly.

Just-in-Time decision making generally happens at the lower, granular level with daily or weekly tactical decisions. Responsible project management still requires having a high-level vision that generally doesn’t change.


So, how does a product evolve from a high-level product vision all the way down to the daily standup or scrum? There are five commonly recognized levels of planning, and we’ll explore each of these levels and how the details become more defined and specific with each level.


Let’s start with the product vision. This high-level concept is initially developed by the product owner, who serves as the voice of the customer or key stakeholders. This is the highest level of planning and the details are very coarse-grained and subject to change and evolve, and there is no exact plan for how to go about creating the deliverable.

The next level of planning is the product roadmap. This starts as a story map with the minimum viable product in line to be developed first, followed by other features that can be added later in order of priority. Once the timing of deliverables is added to the story map, it's called a product roadmap.

The third level of planning is known as release planning, where the respective product becomes more robust With each of its newly released version. Generally, releases are scheduled ahead of time before the team even knows what will be released. This helps teams to establish a cadence of continual value delivery.

During Iteration planning, a realistic number of user stories are pulled from the Product Backlog and translated into specific tasks. The development team estimates the tasks and commits to completing them during the next Sprint or Iteration.

During the Sprint or Iteration, daily planning occurs and every day counts. What started as a high-level product vision is decomposed to specific tasks and fine detail. The developers are taking more of a microscopic approach, and Just-in-Time decision making is very appropriate at this level of work.

Let's understand adaptive planning with real life example

Let's apply the concept of adaptive planning to a family road trip. Imagine a family planning a two-week road trip across a large country. The family's vision is to have a memorable vacation. They have a final destination in mind, but they want to keep their route options open to explore different regions and attractions.

The family identifies major attractions and regions of interest as broad goals for their trip, allowing them to have anchor points without strict adherence to a defined route. Only the first few nights are booked in advance. This initial planning secures their start, but it leaves room to extend their stay or leave early based on their experiences or new opportunities.

Adaptive planning with example

As needed, the family assesses their experiences. This reassessment allows them to decide whether to alter their next destination choice based on what has made them happy so far or if they've received interesting suggestions from locals. Daily plans are made each morning considering the latest weather conditions, local advice, and their personal energy levels.

This daily check-in ensures that their activities align closely with their current interests and changes within the environment or group dynamic. The family remains open to spontaneous opportunities. For instance, if they hear about a not-to-be-missed local festival or a recommended detour to avoid traffic, they can adjust their plans accordingly.

By maintaining this level of flexibility in their planning, the family ensures that their trip remains enjoyable, adapting to both planned and unplanned adventures, and it can mitigate potential frustrations that come from overly rigid itineraries.

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