Connecting Agile with Theory of Change

Abstract

The majority of non-profit organizations, including those in the sustainability sector, use Theory of Change to define, plan, and evaluate their change initiatives [14, 26]. “Theory of Change is essentially a comprehensive description and illustration of how and why a desired change is expected to happen in a particular context.” [5] Both, Theory of Change and Agile acknowledge that before a plan is validated by implementation, everything is an assumption and all assumptions may have to change until validated by delivery. Therefore, planning and evaluation must both be responsive to change, and both must incorporate new learning. This paper presents an overview of Theory of Change and examines how it can align and connect with Agile. The agile community is starting to take more responsibility for sustainability, and it is beginning to support the sustainability sector as the second appearance of the “Workshop on Agile Sustainability” at the XP 2022 conference shows. However, when supporting the sustainability sector, agile practitioners are likely to encounter Theory of Change, and they will need to understand it. Thus, this paper provides an overview of Theory of Change and identifies connections between the Theory of Change approach and agile mindsets, methods, and practices. This will especially help and encourage agile practitioners to support the sustainability sector.