Fixed capacity and beyond budgeting: a symbiotic relationship within a scaled agile environment

Scaling agile within an organization has a direct influence on the way scheduling is done; this in turn has a direct influence on the budgeting process and the allocation of resources. This chapter investigates the notion of fixed capacity and its influence on the budgeting process. In the first phase, interviews were scheduled within a case that has adopted SAFe as a scaled agile framework. A total of 19 interviews spanning 14 hours of data were analyzed. The analysis of the interviews indicates that the introduction of fixed capacity is not an easy process, but the benefits outweigh the difficulties. Fixed capacity introduces beyond budgeting with the focus on a fixed capacity budget. In the second phase, the notion of beyond budgeting was investigated focusing on the rationale and benefits. As with fixed capacity, the benefits of beyond budgeting outweigh the agony associated with moving from a demand-based budget to a fixed capacity budget.