Tailoring agile: Making it fit your project, not the other way around

Agile isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution – and most project professionals already know this. The real challenge is turning that awareness into action.

Using agile frameworks like Scrum or SAFe doesn’t make a project ‘agile’, and running sprints doesn’t guarantee better delivery outcomes. What matters more is how agile principles - adaptability, continuous learning and collaboration – are embedded in practice. That’s where tailoring comes in.

Tailoring in agile project management is often confused by people talking about ‘selecting’, ‘choosing’ or ‘customising’ agile frameworks and practices while saying they are tailoring agile to projects. However, these actions are not tailoring. Think of tailoring as making a bespoke suit: it's not just about adjusting sleeves or trouser lengths – it's about crafting something that fits the specific shape, needs, purposes and style of the person wearing it. It’s the application of expert knowledge and a close exchange with the client to co-create a garment. Both the process and the product are of superior quality. Similarly, tailoring agile means aligning methods and tools with the unique characteristics of a project team – its culture, context and constraints to create, hopefully, a superior product.

Based on our research with agile coaches and project teams, we found that effective agile tailoring is not just about ‘choosing the right framework’ – it’s about evolving and adapting it to truly fit the team’s way of working. It depends upon an effective exchange relationship with the tailor.

The role of agile coaches in tailoring

Internal or external agile coaches increasingly support projects and organisations through this tailoring process and act as tailors.

Considering the process of bespoke tailoring, the tailor needs to show professionalism, taking precise measurement and design the clothes to the best fit while the customer set requirements, exchange ideas and actively participates in fittings. Fittings may take more than one visit. An agile coach working in sustainable energy projects explained that tailoring goes beyond guidance: “Teams need time to learn, reflect and evolve. My role is to teach, coach and adapt agile practices so they support that journey.” The process is interactive in nature. So it should be with agile tailoring, if it truly is ‘tailoring’. Exchange and interaction between agile coach and client are necessary but often overlooked in agile transformations.

Common challenges in agile tailoring

We found that ill-fitted agile tailoring projects share some common traits:

Misapplied practices: Teams adopt agile practices based on agile coach’s advice (like daily stand-ups) without understanding their purpose – “We do it, but we’re not sure why.”
Lack of fittings: less than half of the agile coaches in our research give fittings to teams, which reflect the neglect of a very important step in tailoring.
Over-focus on tools, under-focus on need: Teams often ask, “What can we implement?” rather than, “What do we actually need?” Coaches may prefer to offer their own choices rather than what would benefit the client. Project teams say it’s hard to negotiate their expectations with the coach and they are not sure whether their performance is improving because of the agile coaching they invested in, or some other reason. A structured process is needed to facilitate the interactions and align expectations on agile methods and practices.

Three recommendations for better agile tailoring

Based on these findings, here are three practical recommendations for project professionals engaging in agile tailoring, as client or tailor:

1. Define your tailoring process

No matter what changes you want to make on your agile projects, consider setting a tailoring process first. Negotiate over how the tailoring will be performed. You may make improvements to some agile practices you are using or have used before, changing design of a framework or practice, adding different features and functionalities to a commercial agile method or practice, or using combinations of commercial agile practices or methods.

We found that some clients lack understanding about the job of the agile coach. It’s in the tailor’s interests to make sure the concepts in communication are mutually understandable to avoid barriers or conflicts in communication. Inconsistent messaging, lack of clarity in discussions, or misinterpretation of information, could indicate a misunderstanding. If feedback from the tailor has been consistently ignored or not acted upon, it could also indicate a misunderstanding about the importance of feedback or how to use it for improvement.

2. Share information openly and use demonstrations

Trust is built through transparency. Although the garment tailor uses knowledge that is beyond the experience of their client, they help the client understand their own needs and the capabilities of the tailor by showing pictures of their previous designs and tangible indictors of the process that they use. Similarly, agile tailors should show their experience and professionalism. Agile coaches and teams should regularly share examples – whether it's a piece of code, a process map, or a simulation. Demonstrations help ground abstract practices in real outcomes and spark collaborative problem-solving.

3. Make time for fitting – and re-fitting

Tailoring takes time, resources and leadership support. Agile thrives on iteration, learning from failure and adapting quickly – but this only happens when project managers allocate time and resources for reflection and experimentation. Especially for teams still developing their agile capabilities, those ‘fitting sessions’ are essential. Clients must ensure that they obtain this as part of their contract, tailors do well to recommend it.

In conclusion, tailoring agile is not a luxury – it’s a necessity for agile transformation projects. Projects differ, teams evolve and rigid frameworks often fall short. By embracing the mindset of tailoring – learning, adjusting and co-creating – project professionals can make agile truly work for their unique environment.