Design for Recovery, Not Just Delivery
Design for Recovery, Not Just Delivery
Most organisations are very good at planning delivery.
Roadmaps are clear. Milestones are defined. Dependencies are mapped. PI plans are committed with care.
What gets less attention is what happens when plans do not hold.
In long running transformation and engineering work, that moment is not an exception. It is expected.
Resilient organisations do not treat recovery as a failure mode. They treat it as part of the system.
A familiar pattern in engineering work
Consider a long engineering program designing a complex product.
A test result fails. A design assumption proves wrong. A dependency behaves differently than expected.
None of this is surprising.
What matters is the response.
In less resilient systems, teams rush to explain. Meetings multiply. Energy shifts from fixing to defending.
In more resilient systems, teams pause briefly, recover, and adjust. Work continues with minimal drama.
The difference is not talent or intent. It is whether recovery has been designed in.
Where Agile already helps
Agile and PI already give teams a powerful mechanism for recovery: the retrospective.
Retrospectives are often treated as routine hygiene. Something to run the same way every iteration.
Resilient teams use them more deliberately.
They adapt retrospectives to the issue at hand. When delivery is smooth, they focus on flow and efficiency. When pressure increases or something breaks, they shift the focus to recovery.
What happened What did we learn What needs to change now
No theatre. No blame. Just adjustment.
This flexibility is a strength of Agile, not a gap.
What resilient teams do differently
They make recovery visible and normal.
Instead of waiting for a major incident or end of PI, they create space to reset when needed. Short. Focused. Relevant.
Engineers stay engaged because learning is valued more than justification. Leaders stay confident because recovery does not require escalation.
Momentum is protected.
Why this builds resilience
Teams that recover quickly do not lose trust in the system.
They expect plans to change. They know they can adapt. They do not freeze when something goes wrong.
Resilience grows when recovery is treated as part of doing the work, not as a response to failure.
Top Tip: Adapt Retrospectives to Support Recovery
When pressure rises or something breaks, adjust your retrospective format.
Shift the focus from improvement ideas to recovery questions: What did we learn What do we adjust What do we let go of
Agile already gives you the structure. Resilience comes from how intentionally you use it.
