Keith looked at the research into why change projects fail, or under deliver.  He was able to distil the findings to three core causes:

• Want and commitment for the change are missing
• The design – reality gap is too big
• Not enough attention is paid to the “people issues”

For each of these issues, Agile methods offer demonstrably better risk management than conventional change and project management approaches.  The underlying thinking and attitudes of agile ensure that the risk factors are largely prevented, and also that the risk factors are surfaced earlier, which enables routine management of risks within time and budget constraints.  The impact of risks is therefore reduced, not by expensive mitigations, contingencies, or change controls, but by doing the change project right, by using agile methods.