Ines Mergel Andrew B.

Whitford
University of Konstanz University of Georgia
Sukumar Ganapati
Florida International University

Agile: A New Way of Governing Viewpoint Article

Ines Mergel is professor of public

Abstract: The evolving concept of “agile” has fundamentally changed core aspects of software design, project administration at the University of Konstanz,
management, and business operations. The agile approach could also reshape government, public management, and Germany, and a fellow of the National
governance in general. In this Viewpoint essay, the authors introduce the modern agile movement, reflect on how it can Academy of Public Administration. She
conducts research on digital service
benefit public administrators, and describe several challenges that managers will face when they are expected to make transformation in the public sector, the
their organizations more flexible and responsive. use of nontraditional technologies, and
innovative forms of collaboration with

G
public sector stakeholders.
overnment agencies are creating policies only emergency managers typically had to deal with Email: ines.mergel@uni-konstanz.de
for agile government and introducing new crisis situations in an agile way to respond to shifting
practices and playbooks (e.g., GAO 2012; realities on the ground. In both practice and academic Sukumar Ganapati is associate

HUD 2018). For instance, digital service teams such settings, people often use “agility” interchangeably professor and former director of the
PhD program in public affairs at Florida
as the U.S. Digital Service, the United Kingdom’s with more familiar terms such as “responsiveness” or International University. His research
Government Digital Service, and the Canadian Digital “adaptive governance”—highlighting momentary change focuses on the use of information

Service have paved the way for working in an “agile from the standard operating procedures and leading technology in the public sector. His research
projects have been supported by the
way.” State and local governments have adopted agile to a conflation of the terms (e.g., Janssen and van der National Science Foundation and the IBM
and related practices through innovation labs and Voort 2016; Wise 2006). Moreover, the canonical Center for the Business of Government.

civic service design teams (e.g., Georgia Technology public administration literature has largely neglected Email: ganapati@fiu.edu

Authority, New York City). In these specific cases, agile and the more fundamental changes it introduces to Andrew B. Whitford is Alexander M.
“agile” is a paradigm for better software development hierarchical and bureaucratic organizations. For instance, Crenshaw Professor of Public Policy in the
and project management to avoid large-scale project our search in Web of Science for the topic “agile” School of Public and International Affairs
at the University of Georgia. He is also a
failures at the end of the project and funding revealed 26 research articles in “public administration,” fellow of the National Academy of Public
period (e.g., Mergel 2016; Project Management most of which were not related to the agile concept. Administration. His research concentrates
Institute 2017). Agile is usefully contrasted with the on strategy and innovation in public policy
and organization studies.
traditional “waterfall” method, in which each project Based on years of collective experience interviewing Email: aw@uga.edu
phase has to be carried out in sequence (see, e.g., practitioners and documenting these changes, this
Whitford 2020). Government software projects are Viewpoint essay aims to introduce the agile concept to
designed and built to last for a long time. Planning and the public administration community, bringing clarity
building often takes years—and working software is to the use of the concept and integrating it with other
often outdated when it is finally released. Agile project more established concepts in public administration
management values and techniques allow project teams such as responsiveness, resilience, and adaptability (in
to work on smaller increments, review their work often, contrast with more monumental public management
and include feedback right away to avoid costly failures. reforms such as New Public Management) (e.g., Greve
et al. 2019). For clarity, academics can think of agile as a
A quiet government transformation is already underway new package of routines and processes embedded within
among practitioners who are investing heavily in formal work groups and structures—as a pathway for
working in agile environments and applying agile “nudging” organizational behavior toward higher-valued
approaches to software development and other types outcomes. We proceed by describing its roots in the field
of government problems. Traditionally, major changes of software design. We then highlight key advantages
in the way government works are introduced either and challenges of an agile working environment in
through policy changes or through public management government beyond its origins in software development.
reforms. Agencies are now changing their project
management techniques and even procurement practices, What Agile Is and Why It Matters Public Administration Review,
Vol. 00, Iss. 00, pp. 1–5. © 2020 by
incorporating new values and methods that are foreign Agile is such a recent phenomenon that most The American Society for Public Administration.
to classically “bureaucratic” organizations. Historically, governments are still learning how to apply it when DOI: 10.1111/puar.13202.

Agile: A New Way of Governing 1

Table 1 Core Values of Agile are the main starting points; software should work first (even if not
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools comprehensive); collaboration gets more done than a conflict-based
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation process; and, change is inevitable, so responsiveness and adaptability
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan
are key.

From these four values, the architects of agile developed 12 key

searching for innovation and performance improvements in principles for software developers to follow when building and
government operations and service provision. Agile government is deploying complex software projects (see table 2). These four values
inspired by agile software development, but in wider administrative and 12 principles establish an infinite feedback loop. Developers
parlance, it means responding to changing public needs in an efficient are asked to figure out what the software should do, how it should
way. In the redesign and digitalization of public services, agile be designed, and how it should be built and to test it all at the
methods are applied in the initial requirement analysis. Service same time. Working software produced quickly is the most valuable
designers use ethnographic methods to understand user needs along outcome. Users then test that build as a way of guiding developers
the journey they take to access a public service. They interview about what changes will most improve the overall project. Those
process owners (to understand the formal requirements based on the user experiences as they interact with prototypes show developers
law) and internal and external users (to understand their experiences what aspects they should fix first. After rapidly deploying new
throughout the full user journey). This reveals pain points but also versions of working software to the user base, they then gather new
things that work well, which shows how to design a better public information about what should be fixed next. The overall point here
service from a user perspective. is that this cycle should take as many iterations as needed to make
user experiences better—and it may be that the feedback loop lasts
Service designers then compare these informal requirements forever.
with the formal requirements and hand over a prototype to the
software developers. These design steps emphasize inclusiveness and Because agile centers on working and learning from customers about
transparency—not only with respect to citizens but also with respect how to build better software—about finding what core needs should
to public servants, who serve as core project team members and are be fixed next—it is easy to see how people in government have
not left out of decision-making processes. In contrast, in “waterfall” latched on to this approach for improving software development in
or other traditional approaches involving vendors, contract officers the public sector. For instance, a 2014 IBM Center for the Business
help decide the product’s attributes but rarely solicit the input of of Government report (Gorans and Kruchten 2014) focused on how
those who use the tools daily. Users, when they are involved at all, waterfall approaches (the most common way government builds
provide feedback or assessment information after a new process, software and, indeed, most programs and projects) are rigid in their
software, or approach is deployed. In contrast with a traditional laying out of project requirements (often taking years) before they
bureaucracy, in which decisions are made top-down and complaints move on to the actual design, development, testing, and deployment
from users emerge bottom-up, agile government procedures reframe of working software.
traditional decision-making by making internal and external users
part of the process from day 1. While waterfall is slow and plan based, agile is fast and light. Agile
invests in initial planning but assumes that those plans will change
Therefore, agile is not in inherent conflict with democratic or other as experience with working software provides new information
classical administrative values. In internal project management, about what users need. In many settings, those learning experiences
agile is a method for improving the efficiency of service delivery. are carried out by teams organized as “scrums” known for high-
Yet agile governance implies being responsive to public values such paced, rapid iteration, perhaps even with the goal of producing
as equality and social responsibility. This is because even if agency new versions of working software in less than a day. While waterfall
officials only care about how they deal with external users, agile approaches center on planning, agile succeeds when working
shapes how the agency discovers and then integrates the changing software is deployed. Agile projects have four times more successes
needs of the public—itself a democratic value (Beck et al. 2001). and one-third fewer failures than waterfall projects (Serrador and
Rather than focusing only on the provision of products or services, Pinto 2015; Standish Group 2015); this balance indicates why so
agile deeply values the voices of both team members and citizens. many people are drawn to agile as a way of doing their work.
When present at all levels of the agency, successful self-governing
agile teams prepare and make decisions, with the broad support In some important ways, agile’s core assumption is that innovation
of top management; this creates greater openness to the broader is not linear—that it does not proceed in a rational, deterministic
adoption of successful reform elements (Greve et al. 2019). manner (e.g., see, Mackenzie and Wajcman 1999). Organizations,
cultures, and needs are entwined when moving forward with an
The concordance of agile and classical public administration values innovation; in many senses, the process from beginning to end
can be seen in the role of the “Agile Manifesto” in the movement’s is path dependent and builds on the actions and preferences of
evolution (Beck et al. 2001). In 2001, a group of software engineers builders, operators, and end users.
and developers articulated four core agile values that they wanted
to guide efforts to fix common problems in how virtually everyone Agile embeds this understanding—either purposively or
builds and deploys complex software (see table 1). Agile’s core intuitively—in its focus on rapid learning, which naturally means
values were established as a way of changing how software is that agile requires high levels of collaboration between technical
produced. It is easy to see the main points here: users and makers staff and the user base. For this reason, we now see agile as a way of
2 Public Administration Review • xxxx | xxxx 2020
Table 2 12 Principles of Agile
1. Seek to fulfill the customer’s needs. Do so through the early delivery of software. Continuously improve that software.
2. Respond to the demand for changes to that software because doing so better positions the customer for success.
3. Shorten the timescale for the delivery of working software. Deliver changes frequently.
4. Developers should work hand in hand with business users.
5. Center fabrication around individuals motivated to succeed.
6. Emphasize face-to-face conversation within the team and between the development team and the broader organization.
7. The most important benchmarks are working software.
8. Sustainable development is the goal. All involved parties should be able to maintain a constant pace of engagement.
9. Continuously focus on technical quality and good design.
10. Emphasize simplicity.
11. Self-organization in teams improves design and production.
12. Regularly reflect on how to improve this process.

Source: Beck et al. (2001).

doing more than just designing and deploying working software. constraints. In this way, agile is like other cross-functional
Indeed, agile has evolved from a software design method to a administrative arrangements intended to improve transparency,
central way of handling the design, production, and deployment of resource sharing, and capabilities. Like other arrangements (e.g.,
any customer-facing processes and includes not only information matrix designs), agile is intended to make it easier to know what
technology specialists but also generalists, managers, and process works and avoid what does not work. In agile, policy or product
owners at the user level. In this respect, while it is impossible designers need the input of users, citizens, or customers because
to escape the social shaping of technology, agile respects those their own experiences are not as useful or representative—so they
processes. have to leave their silos. In several ways, this is what also lay behind
the move toward single points of contact instead of dealing with
Because of its roots in and permeation of software design and multiple agencies for resolving issues (e.g., permitting in local
deployment (to the point that it is difficult now to find software governments, 311 call centers). In agile, coordination should be
shops that are not agile in some shape or form), we see agile as more seamless at the front end.
than just a way of making apps or bots. Yes, agile has continued to
evolve—many organizations now use higher-level integrative practices Agile Emphasizes Responsible Individual Discretion over
(e.g., DevOps) for the continuous integration and delivery of code— Bureaucratic Procedures
but we see the bigger picture here as this new focus on all customer- Rather than following traditional standard operating procedures,
facing processes. We know that “customer” is a loose word—in fact, workers with expertise are liberated to solve public problems
users, employees, citizens, stakeholders, and any word we want to use in an efficient and effective manner. As discussed earlier, agile
can be the target of an agile design method to improve government— emphasizes bottom-up change over top-down direction (or even
yet agile works for both internal and external users. outside-in from vendors or consultants). Of course, this focus
on the individual resonates with broader approaches to change
Advantages of Agile management. Agile’s emphasis on the individual can improve public
Overall, agile is a mind-set that initiates a cultural change servants’ engagement if the organization’s culture values individual
in bureaucratic command and control organizations. Agile contributions. In agile, no worker is just “another cog in the wheel,”
administrations are open to reforms, adaptation to the changing which changes the perceptions of those who are involved and
environment, public values, and public needs. Here we outline how might increase ownership and, subsequently, acceptance during the
it can contribute to a more effective and efficient administration. adoption.

Agile Assumes Situations Are Fluid and Change over Time Agile Emphasizes Continuous Self-Reflective Learning
As new information, constraints, or opportunities emerge, agile Processes
drives practitioners to revise and update early working versions to Agile assumes failure, so agencies that experience failure in their
improve processes or services. Improvements might include speed first iterations are better equipped to improve. Therefore, public
to delivery, product or service quality, or the program’s existence managers are pushed to abandon a zero-failure culture so that
itself. While in traditional processes “results” are often mostly about workers are free to make mistakes. Of course, trial and error and
“reporting,” in agile the goal is to satisfy constituents by solving experimental approaches can be difficult in environments that
their problems (outcomes are achieved) rather than just producing traditionally do not reward mistakes. Likewise, managers drive the
detailed documentation. Transparency and accountability are process. For instance, agile “retrospectives” require managers and
improved by knowing why things changed and who was in the teams to revisit policies and procedures periodically to ask what
room when decisions were made. happened and how things can improve. Agile cultures learn fast
from past mistakes.
Agile Privileges Adaptive Structure over Hierarchies and Silos
Unlike in traditional bureaucracies, in which administrative Agile Increases Knowledge about Processes, Procedures, and
divisions are the meat and bones of everything, in agile, Requirements for New Processes and Services
administrative divisions are only for back-end purposes. External We know that agencies with agile purchasing processes—often
users do not know (or even need to know) administrative “blanket purchasing agreements” (BPAs)—learn more about what
Viewpoint 3
they need and how things should work. For instance, coauthoring time project. Such new modes of contracting and procurement
and adapting buying requirements for products and services often focus on the holistic team, service delivery process, and creating
improves overall quality. In agile BPA processes, contract managers long term trust relationships (Opelt et al. 2013).
verify legal prerequisites, but knowledge owners (who need to use the
products and services) write content requirements. This helps ensure Conclusions and Future Opportunities
that products and services are usable while maintaining oversight. Agile requires at its core a change in rigid bureaucratic cultures
Users then assess what external contractors deliver. In domains such (top-down, zero failure). This is no small feat. Generations of civil
as information technology, many vendors are required to follow agile servants have been trained to follow the hierarchy principle. They
principles in their work with private sector entities, so an agile layer have been told to obey a command and control structure without
in the government sector is de rigueur. In turn, many agencies now questioning the legitimacy of its decision-making model. They have
require agile buying approaches, including the delivery of prototypes learned to stick to their guns in assigned roles and leave innovation
up front to demonstrate ability to deliver on tenders and improve up to the upper echelons. Change in organizational culture is hard,
transparency. We are already seeing this change in the service delivery especially if there are no incentives to change. We know that there
industry (although it is still early stage days) (e.g., Whitford 2020). are many internal organizational and cultural features that influence
these changes and the adoption of new reform elements (Greve
Challenges in Adopting Agile in Government et al. 2019; Jun and Weare 2011; Venkatesh et al. 2003).
We see several key challenges in importing agile into traditional
agencies, especially in scaling new practices or experiments to the Agile culture turns traditional organizational principles of the
rest of the organization. bureaucracy upside down. Agile values individual team members
and teams. It requires responsible discretion—and great flexibility in
Agile Is Antithetical to Many Typical Bureaucratic Line organizational procedures and principles. Many organizational settings
Organizations have experienced remarkable transformation through the application
In these settings, managers who need to take responsibility for of agile principles. The same is possible in the public sector—if
actions may not be willing to do so given how cross-functional leaders embrace its advantages and are mindful of its challenges. Here,
agile teams work. This is classic blame avoidance—a natural empirical research together with practitioners is necessary to understand
response in risk-averse settings when people are asked to take the expectations of organizational members, such as necessary
responsibility for new methods and especially their outcomes. If competences, decision-making structures, or expected outcomes.
experimentation is not part of the toolbox, and if bureaus value
organizational reputation and avoid public failures, agile never Yet we recognize that these are early days for our understanding
gains traction. Managers need to take responsibility for the final of the prospects for agile in the public sector. For instance,
product and defend the outcome, even though it might not have one area ripe for theoretical and empirical contributions is the
been developed with their explicit input. Agile civil servants cannot political aspects of agility. We know from our collective empirical
rely on established standard operating procedures, so their actions understanding of the practice space that theoretical or empirical
run headlong into legalistic administrative culture. Because agile can contributions that disentangle agility in policy making, agility
also contradict administrative law, its application must be evaluated in emergency policies, or other types of proactive or reactive
case by case. Moreover, in organizations largely characterized by policy-making issues would be beneficial. An obvious example is
“we have seen this before, let’s wait until the next wave comes in,” that emergency management or public health responses may be
traditionalists could see agile as another fad that will be replaced. especially attuned to agile principles. However, the development of
such a contribution is beyond the scope of this short essay.
Agile Requires a New Form of Leadership
Most notably, agile requires consensual decision-making and Another area that needs greater elaboration is how agile practitioners
acceptance of trial-and-error approaches—leadership styles that see the relationship between the framework they know best and the
are not often represented among middle managers. Agile requires broader classical public administration values elaborated in this journal
handing over decisions to groups of nonleaders; agile requires and taught in public affairs programs. A number of methodologies
protection of teams from external political and other influences. (e.g., Q-sorts) could be used to elaborate that relationship but to our
In a number of ways, agile is consistent with servant leadership, knowledge no systematic information is currently available.
which is less-represented in public administration (Greenleaf 1970).
Agile emphasizes putting subordinates first, helping them grow Even though our knowledge base remains incomplete, the practice
and succeed in the organization, empowering the team, and experience makes clear that agile is gaining traction as a new way of
creating value for the community. Many private sector information governing. We hope that this contribution helps build a bridge for
technology companies using agile emphasize servant leadership. further collaboration between practitioners and academics in the
search for new ways of enhancing public value.
Agile Requires New Forms of Contracting and Procurement
Traditional contracting processes are oriented toward waterfall,
which focuses on the delivery of specified products in a stepwise References
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Viewpoint 5