Your team and its work Context decides what fits. Sprints suit planned work; flow suits a stream of requests.
What does your team mostly do?
Build a product Explore a new idea Run a service (ops, support) Projects plus support
How many people are on the team?
3–5 6–9 10 or more
How many teams work on the same product?
Just us 2–4 teams 5 or more
How you work today How much of your work is planned ahead?
Mostly planned About half Mostly unplanned
How familiar is the team with agile ways of working?
New to it Tried a few things Experienced
Anything else that applies?
Regulated or audited Remote or spread across time zones Fixed external deadlines
What hurts most? 3 of 3 Pick up to three. Every ingredient in your recipe should earn its place by fixing one of these.
We don’t know what matters most✓ Lots started, little finished✓ Constant interruptions and urgent requests✓ We can’t say when things will be done We learn too late if we built the right thing Bugs and rework eat our time Releases are slow and scary Work waits on hand-offs between people Stakeholders feel left in the dark Too many meetings, too little value The same problems keep coming back Teams pull in different directions