Put yourself in the role of a project manager collaborating with MTD, an events company.
Considering the difficulties and problems that MTD encounters in their projects, what insights have you gained this week that could offer assistance?
If an iterative approach were employed in organizing an event as a project, what would be the consequences? Similarly, what are the implications of adopting an agile approach? If the company sought your advice, what would you recommend?
Contribute your thoughts and ideas to the discussion.
This week’s learning about iterative and Agile approaches really clicked for me when I thought about MTD’s challenges. Events, much like healthcare operations, don’t always follow the “perfect plan” you put on paper. Things change. People cancel. Equipment fails. And deadlines don’t move.
In my previous healthcare role, I once organised a national clinical symposium. A key international speaker cancelled two days before the event due to an emergency surgery. Because we had planned in iterative stages — with regular check-ins, backup options, and flexible content blocks — we managed to replace the speaker, rework the agenda, and keep delegates engaged without the whole event collapsing. That experience showed me the value of not treating a plan as set in stone.
Implications of an Iterative Approach for MTD:
You get early warning on problems like supplier delays or tech issues because you’re reviewing progress often.
It gives flexibility to adapt if a client changes requirements mid-plan.
It supports continuous improvement — each cycle sharpens logistics, marketing, and the attendee experience.
Downside? With a fixed event date, you can’t keep iterating forever. Too many late-stage changes risk time pressure and cost overruns.
Implications of an Agile Approach for MTD:
Agile keeps clients involved throughout, so they can shape the event even close to delivery.
It encourages fast problem-solving through short, regular team check-ins.
It’s great for navigating uncertainty — if a venue falls through or sponsorship changes, the team can pivot quickly.
That said, some event tasks (venue booking, permits) are sequential and don’t lend themselves to Agile’s flexibility. And some clients may feel uneasy without a fixed, polished plan from day one.
My advice to MTD:
Use a hybrid approach — Agile for creative and flexible parts (e.g., marketing, engagement activities), Waterfall for fixed deadlines and compliance.
Pilot Agile on smaller events before scaling up, so the team can build confidence and skills.
Train staff in Agile methods like stand-ups and backlog management.
Set clear boundaries — make it clear that while the process is flexible, the event date and core deliverables are non-negotiable.
Use digital tools (Trello, Monday.com) for transparency and tracking.
For me, the takeaway is simple: whether in healthcare or event management, the best plan is one that’s strong enough to guide you but flexible enough to survive reality.
If this is not the first time my team is handling such a project, I will advice we use the linear approach at the beginning, so that we will have a few boxes check after a week in the project. However, I will also advice we keep an open mind because every project has different facets. Then, as time goes on will definitely adopt an iterative approach. This will give my team the opportunity to deal with complexities as they come.
One of such complexity might the event center not having a proper water supply facility, we may have to lend a few of those from MTD and have their engineers install them. This will definitely incure some costs but it has taught us to put such an occurrence in mind while planning for another project.
As a project manager,VUCA(volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguousness) will be the first method I’ll apply to identify and analyse the problem which Agile and iterative can be applied also when the project or event requires flexibility depending on the stages, situation, circumstances etc.
In project management, Agile and iterative approach help manage complexity and uncertainty, which are very common in event planning and allow flexibility, quick adjustments, and continuous feedback which is key for MTD’s success.
An iterative approach involves planning events in phases, testing ideas before execution, and adjusting based on feedback. This reduces risks and ensures the event meets expectations.
Implications of Taking an Iterative Approach to Setting Up an Event (MTD Case)
An iterative approach involves breaking the project (event setup) into smaller, manageable cycles or phases where the team plans, executes, evaluates, and refines repeatedly until the final event.
✅ Implications:
• Flexibility: Allows MTD to adapt as plans evolve — useful if client requirements change during the planning process.
• Continuous Improvement: Each iteration helps refine elements like venue setup, logistics, marketing, and attendee experience.
• Early Risk Detection: Problems (e.g., supplier delays or technical issues) can be identified and addressed early.
• Stakeholder Feedback: Regular checkpoints with stakeholders (clients, vendors, sponsors) help ensure alignment.
• Resource Management: Workload is spread out, reducing last-minute pressure and allowing for adjustments.
❌ Challenges:
• Time Constraints: Events often have fixed deadlines, so too many iterations may create time pressure near the delivery date.
• Decision Fatigue: Repeated reviews and adjustments may slow decision-making if not managed well.
• Cost Risks: Changes during iterations might increase costs if scope creep occurs without controls.
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Implications of Taking an Agile Approach
Agile is a broader mindset emphasizing adaptability, collaboration, and customer value through iterative delivery — it’s more dynamic than traditional event planning.
✅ Implications:
• Client-Centered Delivery: Clients are involved throughout; they can influence event direction even late in planning.
• Faster Problem Solving: Agile ceremonies like stand-ups, retrospectives, and sprint planning keep the team aligned and issues visible.
• Flexibility with Uncertainty: If venue issues, weather, or sponsorship changes occur, the team pivots quickly without derailing the whole project.
• Innovation: Continuous feedback fosters creativity in design, marketing, or engagement strategies for the event.
• Team Empowerment: Agile fosters autonomy, accountability, and ownership among the event team.
❌ Challenges:
• Suitability: Some event tasks (e.g., booking venues, permits) are sequential and not easily adaptable to Agile.
• Learning Curve: MTD staff may require training to adopt Agile practices effectively.
• Client Expectations: Not all clients are comfortable with iterative delivery; some expect a detailed, fixed plan upfront.
• Scope Creep Risk: Without disciplined backlog management, ongoing changes can bloat the project.
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🧠 Advice to MTD:
1. Adopt a Hybrid Approach: Combine Agile with traditional project management. For example:
• Use Agile for creative tasks (e.g., marketing campaigns, attendee engagement strategies).
• Use Waterfall for rigid tasks (e.g., securing venues, regulatory compliance).
2. Pilot Agile on Smaller Events: Before full-scale adoption, experiment with Agile for smaller or internal events to build team competence.
3. Train the Team: Invest in Agile training (Scrum, Kanban) to help staff adapt efficiently.
4. Stakeholder Management: Educate clients and stakeholders on the Agile approach. Set expectations about flexibility, regular updates, and collaborative decision-making.
5. Emphasize Strong Planning for Fixed Constraints: While Agile allows flexibility, emphasize that certain deadlines (event day) and fixed deliverables must be non-negotiable.
6. Use Agile Tools: Adopt digital tools like Trello, Jira, or Monday.com for backlog management, sprint tracking, and collaboration.
7. Regular Reviews: Incorporate sprint reviews and retrospectives not just for internal teams but also with clients to ensure satisfaction and alignment.
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✅ Conclusion:
Adopting an iterative or Agile approach could help MTD navigate the unpredictable challenges typical of events — like last-minute changes, vendor issues, or client requests — with more resilience and flexibility. However, they must balance this flexibility with the immovable deadline of the event itself.
Being flexible and adaptable is a prerequisite for project managers because it is critical to the project’s success. To find out where those upcoming challenges fit within and are classified, I would first consult the VUCA framework. Knowing which strategy to employ—linear, iterative, or hybrid—to address the problem makes more sense once this element has been verified.
Gathering information about the different approaches on how to make distribution get to the end users and the processes on how to give them the best treatments alongside. Applying an iterative approach gives room for a proper analytical approach to achieving the goal at every step of the way while applying an approach of testing-on-the go
As an emerging Project Manager, I will use a combination of the linear and iterative approach while putting into consideration the VUCA(Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) framework.
Considering the difficulties and problems that MTD encounters in their projects, what insights have you gained this week that could offer assistance?
Considering the difficulties and problems that MTD encounters in their projects, I believe studying and understanding the different environments that is volatile, uncertain, ambiguous and certain will help them to execute their projects better. Environmental analysis and working out appropriate strategies for each environmental setting would help the project manager to collaborate with MTD.
Employing an iterative approach in organizing an event as a project would mean there is early risk mitigation on the project, it will encourage collaboration among teams, encourage continuous communication among team members. However, it would also require that teams put-up a united front to achieve tasks especially when in the scram phases, it has higher chances of creating work stress on team members due to tight deadlines.
Adopting an agile approach has the same implication as that of iterative.
If the company sought my advise, I would recommend the iterative approach because of the advantages it has over the linear one.
Enobong Faith Asanga
Cohort 26 team 4
As a Project Manager collaborating with MTD, I have gained a lot of insight on how to achieve a great project, they are:
1. Early detection of risk through testing temporary pipeline, tank placement etc. so as to be able to make adjustments and early delivery possible.
This reduce level of system failure.
Consequences of using Iterative approaches are:
-Continuous improvement which means that lessons learned at previous event are taken and careful implemented in the next project.
-Improve stakeholders engagement and feedback.
Implications of adopting an Agile approach:
In Agile, emphasis are on flexibility, collaboration and rapids change.
Agile will enable teammates to be flexible and responsive, quick to adjust to change that may affect the event layout,crowd size, even weather conditions that were not detected early. Therefore Agile encourage communication across all functional,be it the plumbering team, engineers,event organizers, and local authorities.Also a discipline team structure with fast decision making which can sometimes difficult is needed.
My recommendation is an Agile-Iterative approach, Iterative approaches in beginning and Agile in the execution stage.therefore a project and to succeed, it must be able to be flexible and ethically responsive.