Source: Planning for Value: How much? When?
Author: Allan Kelly
Section: 1 — Why value beats methodology
Reading time: 1 minutes
Tags: value-driven-delivery agile-economics noprojects continuous-delivery-value incremental-delivery early-delivery-benefits revenue-vs-methodology payment-as-feedback value-over-process delivery-frequency
Summary: Kelly reframes the agile vs. waterfall debate: the question isn’t which methodology is ‘right’ but which will make more money. Agile makes more because it delivers something sooner. Regular deliveries increase value and generate revenue earlier — and payment itself is the most important feedback loop. The traditional agile arguments (feedback, quality, risk reduction) are secondary to the financial case.
Why value beats methodology
The question most teams ask is: Is this project right for Agile? Or is Waterfall better here? Is this right for Kanban? Or is Scrum better?
Allan Kelly argues this is the wrong question. The real question is: Which approach will make more money?
Agile makes more money because it delivers something sooner. The traditional arguments for agile — tighter feedback loops, changing requirements, improved quality, reduced risk — are all valid, but they miss the primary point:
Regular deliveries are good because they increase value. They make more money.
The agile community often gets this wrong by leading with process benefits rather than financial outcomes. Kelly strikes through the usual bullet points (feedback, quality, risk) and replaces them with the core truth: deliveries generate revenue, and earlier revenue is worth more.
Payment is feedback. When a customer pays for what you’ve built, that’s the most meaningful feedback loop of all. It validates that you’ve created something valuable — more meaningful than any sprint review or demo.
The frame for the entire presentation is the #NoProjects / Continuous movement: stop thinking in terms of projects with start dates and end dates. Instead, think about continuous value delivery where the question is always how much value, and when?