Why The Customer Is King on Agile Projects

The weekly, bi-weekly or monthly "show-and-tell" is one of the customer's most powerful weapons.

As a customer, you're holding most of the planning cards, too.

If you choose to change the plan based on feedback every sprint, identifying new requirements that are coming to light as the work unfolds, and reprioritising exciting requirements, then you can.

All you have to do is accept that fixed-price R&D is a folly, and that your focus should be on what you're getting for your money, not on whether you're on plan and on budget according to some grand overall plan that was plucked out of the air at a time when you knew the least.

Once your emphasis shifts from sticking to a plan and a budget to maximising the value you get from every weekly delivery of working software, you are very much in Agile territory.