Focus on Value in Crisis: Why Agile Project Management Fits First Responders

Every mission has a purpose—but not every project has clarity. For first responders, that distinction can mean the difference between efficiency and chaos.

Whether you're a First Sergeant managing police shift rotations or a Battalion Chief coordinating interagency fire support, your team faces constant pressure to deliver. The problem is, many units lack a consistent approach to managing those efforts. Different stations use different systems—or none at all. New leaders bring new methods. And with each handoff or reassignment, productivity can drop while teams scramble to adjust.

That’s why I recommend Agile Project Management, specifically Scrum and Kanban, as the operational backbone for first responder organizations.

Why Traditional Management Fails in Fast-Paced Environments

Most organizations still rely on some version of the Waterfall model—a rigid, linear method where leaders plan everything up front and hope the execution holds up months later. While this may work in construction or manufacturing, it falls apart in emergency services. The “plan, design, implement” structure assumes a level of predictability we simply don’t have. In the field, the pace changes daily. Priorities shift hourly. One phone call can reroute an entire unit. Waterfall creates bottlenecks, reduces flexibility, and delays adjustments when things go sideways. In contrast, Agile is built for environments that are dynamic, complex, and human-centered—which describes the first responder world perfectly.

Agile Focuses the Team on What Matters Most

Agile isn't just a system. It’s a mindset that helps teams break down big problems into small, manageable pieces and prioritize what delivers the most value right now.

For first responders, this means:

• Coordinating multi-agency incident responses based on real-time needs, not outdated SOPs

• Prioritizing inspections, maintenance, and training tasks to ensure readiness without burnout

• Empowering department heads to own their backlog of work and plan with autonomy

The idea is simple: let each team self-organize around a shared goal, then empower them to adjust as the situation evolves. Agile turns vague direction into tactical execution. Instead of asking for more effort, it asks for better focus.

Building Clarity with Scrum and Kanban

The Scrum Framework gives structure to this mindset. Assign clear roles:

• The Officer in Charge or Department Head acts as the Product Owner, guiding priorities.

• A Executive Petty Officer or Shift Supervisor can serve as Scrum Master, removing blockers.

• The crew forms the Development Team, committing to Sprint goals.

  
  

We then run short, two-week Sprints. At the start, we plan. At the end, we review and adapt. This keeps the team aligned without micromanagement.

Kanban boards are used to track work visually. Whether on a whiteboard at the station or Microsoft Planner via Teams, each card represents a task—moving from “To Do” to “In Progress” to “Done.” The visual layout eliminates confusion and lets everyone—from the newest recruit to the most senior leader—see the unit’s priorities at a glance.

Department heads can manage their own boards for decentralized command. This clears up the unit-level board and ensures ownership remains at the lowest capable level, just as Jocko Willink describes in Discipline Equals Freedom.

Creating a Culture Shift

Introducing Agile isn’t just about meetings and boards. It’s about shifting culture.

Many leaders are trained in command-and-control environments. They expect their word to be followed. But Agile asks leaders to trust the team to own the "how" while leaders focus on the "what" and "why." In Agile ceremonies, team members commit to work. Leadership listens to why things succeeded—or didn’t. The point is not to punish shortfalls, but to learn, adapt, and improve. This approach isn’t soft—it’s structured. It demands ownership and accountability, not blind obedience.

Real Benefits: Less Burnout, More Output

We’ve implemented Agile at the unit level using tools like Microsoft Teams. It took a few months to work out the kinks. But once we hit our stride, the results were clear:

• Work was visible

• Tasks were aligned with mission priorities

• Teams had autonomy and accountability

• Communication across shifts improved

• Burnout went down as crews owned their workload

  
  

Whether you’re planning readiness drills, updating SOPs, or executing a complex field operation, Agile helps align effort with purpose—every single day.

Why It Matters

First responders are expected to lead under pressure, but they’re rarely trained to manage projects. That gap creates friction, duplication, and delay. By adopting Agile, we give our people a repeatable, flexible system that enhances both productivity and morale.

And this isn’t theory. It’s already happening. Organizations worldwide are using Agile to move faster, make smarter decisions, and deliver more value.

It’s time first responders did the same.

Eric Risner

Retired Master Chief, U.S. Coast Guard