How Agile Thinking Can Save Lives in Modern Warfare?
I can’t help myself.
Every time I turn on the news, I get pulled in. The images of conflict, the interviews with soldiers, the constantly shifting frontlines, it’s heartbreaking, overwhelming, and impossible to ignore.
I find myself watching late into the night, not just with sorrow, but with a strange sense of pattern recognition.
Somewhere between the silence of fatigue and the noise of drone footage, my brain starts mapping what I see onto something I know deeply… Scrum Framework.
It might sound odd, even inappropriate at first. But hear me out.
These Battlefields Feel Like a Backlog to Me…
As conflicts erupt around the globe, we’re reminded that war has changed.
It’s no longer slow, hierarchical, or predictable (just as businesses have changed). It’s asymmetric, fast-moving, and shaped by real-time decisions and constant adaptation.
And as I watched these reports night after night, I began to notice something: the winning side isn’t always the one with more resources. It’s often the one that adapts faster.
Just like in software, fast feedback, empowered teams, and clear priorities can make all the difference. And that’s when it hit me: the battlefield is beginning to look to me a lot like the complex domains Scrum was built to navigate.
Two Forces, Two Mindsets
Every war has at least two opposing forces.
Typically, they differ in size and equipment. One relies on traditional, top-down planning. Detailed procedures, strict chains of command, and complex coordination. The other empowers small, cross-functional units. These units move fast, communicate constantly, and adapt their strategy on the fly. They don’t wait for permission. They observe, act, and adjust.
I mean, just watch the news (not mainstream though).
Which would you bet on?
Scrum Is Built for Uncertainty
Scrum thrives in environments where the path is unclear and change is constant. In these contexts, long-term plans become liabilities. What you need instead is clarity of intent, short cycles of focused action, and tight feedback loops.
Quick Decisions Under Fire
Let’s imagine a fictional but realistic scenario.
A small recon unit is pinned down on the edge of an urban district. Communications with central command are patchy. There’s no time to wait for orders. The team lead gathers the squad in a quick 3-minute huddle behind cover. They do a rapid check-in: who has visuals, who’s carrying what, who can move. Based on this, they agree on a single goal: reach a nearby rooftop with better visibility and safer coverage.
They split tasks on the spot, execute in sync, and adapt as they move. After reaching the rooftop, they conduct a 2-minute review: what worked, what didn’t, and what they’ll do if they need to repeat this under worse conditions.
No formal doctrine guided them, just shared experience, tight loops of communication, and clarity of intent. This isn’t called Scrum, but it might as well be.
Try This Tactical 24-Hour Sprint TODAY!
Here’s one simple technique anyone, especially those in volatile environments, can try: run a 24-hour sprint. Treat today as a full Sprint.
- Start with a 10-minute planning session: What’s the one objective we must achieve?
- Throughout the day, hold quick syncs (stand-up meetings) every few hours.
- At the end of the day, conduct a retrospective meeting: What worked? What didn’t? What will we try tomorrow?
You don’t need formal training to try this. You just need urgency and openness to improve.
Learning Fast Beats Planning Long
Consider the idea of time-boxed sprints. In military operations, this could translate to operational cycles where small units plan, execute, and debrief in short sprints. The feedback from each cycle feeds into the next. Intelligence gathered on the ground is not stored in reports for quarterly reviews. It is acted upon within hours.
This approach only works when you actively manage what could go wrong in the next cycle.
Coordination Must Happen Daily
Then there is the Daily Scrum. On the battlefield, this might look like a rapid morning stand-up meeting where platoons communicate their plans, obstacles, and findings for survival.
The Scrum roles also map interestingly. The Product Owner becomes a tactical commander, responsible for prioritizing outcomes based on evolving mission goals.
The Scrum Master, in this context, acts as a facilitator and enabler, clearing obstacles, improving communication, and ensuring the team has what it needs to function at full capacity.
And the team? A unit that trusts each other, holds each other accountable, and executes together.
Today, Agility Is a Necessity
Critics may argue that military operations are too serious to be compared to product development frameworks.
I get this…
But this perspective underestimates the depth and flexibility of Scrum. It’s about empowering those closest to the ground truth to respond fast and effectively.
Traditional command-and-control hierarchies were built for stability, not volatility. They assume a level of predictability that modern battlefields no longer offer. Agile frameworks, in contrast, were born in complexity and thrive in uncertainty.
Discipline and Agility Work Together
To be clear, agility doesn’t replace discipline. It enhances it. Scrum provides a cadence, a shared understanding, and a rhythm that allows teams, even platoons under fire, to make better decisions, faster.
The Future Will Reward the Most Adaptive
As General Stanley McChrystal once wrote, “It takes a network to defeat a network.” In modern warfare and modern work, winning comes not from central control but from empowered, well-informed teams that can respond in real time.
Similarly, agile coach Lyssa Adkins says, “Agile is not a process. It’s a mindset and a capability to deal with change.”
Both insights reinforce what we’ve explored: adaptability isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the strategic advantage of our era.
As conflicts become more technological, more urban, and more asymmetric, the ability to out-learn the enemy becomes as important as outgunning them. In this light, adopting Scrum-like structures is not just a matter of efficiency. It may be a matter of survival.
Ready to Dive Deeper for Free?
If this perspective resonates with you, and you want to understand how real Scrum works beyond the buzzwords, download The Real Scrum Guide 2025. It’s practical, field-tested, written for those navigating complexity, and FREE, whether in product development or in high-stakes environments where every decision counts.
In a world on edge, the tools we once thought were reserved for software developers may prove surprisingly useful for those with far more at stake.
Let me know your take on this.
Dejan Majkic
MA in CS&IT, Scrum Master | Product Owner | Trainer
www.whatisscrum.org
