What can Agile do for school management?

Having spent many years working on co-design and partnership projects with schools, I have become aware of the fact that schools in the UK, and particularly secondary schools, are in a constant state of flux. Even the best performing schools are continually managing change as handed down to them by government or because they get specialist status, being rebuilt or trying to become more outward facing through working in partnership with industry, cultural organisations, HE and FE. Then there are those schools that get entirely new management teams as they become academies or are working to get themselves out of special measures. These schools have to deal with change upon change and at times will feel like they are in constant crisis mode.

As Agile methodologies begin to be applied in new environments, it seems that schools are an obvious candidate as organisations that could really benefit from Agile. Some of the reasons for this are as follows:

• Constant change - as mentioned above, schools are continually working in an environment of constant flux and Agile is all about constant change.
  
• Lightweight processes - teachers are overworked and are resistant to anything that feels like additional management, administration or responsibility - Agile is simple and does not require reams of additional paperwork.
• Minimum iteration - in schools resources, particularly time, are scarce. Teachers will buy into a process and a project if they can see that it is delivering for them. Agile delivers results quickly and requires visible success criteria.
• Needs orientated process - the Agile use of 'stories' as a key concept used for defining goals and considering prioritisation is very useful for schools. Teachers often think in terms of 'need' and 'limitation' and both these are core elements of 'stories'.

Schools are expected to work in terms of projects more and more. Teachers need to be able to work together and with external organisations on project development and delivery in order to respond to the constant change that they are faced with. Agile is much more suited to the school environment than traditional project management approaches. It is flexible, easy to understand, lightweight and quick to implement, delivers visible outcomes quickly and responds effectively to constant change.