Author: William Haxby, Managing Director, Entourage

Agencies hate analogies because they make the opaque understandable. Once you compare their process to building a house, or installing a sink, the excuses stop sounding sophisticated and start sounding absurd. In most industries, missing deadlines, cutting scope, and inflating budgets would be called what they are: failures. In tech, they’re wrapped in buzzwords and billed as process.

I’ve seen this first-hand.

A CULTURE SHOCK

Before this world, I worked in investment banking and corporate strategy. In that environment, deadlines are not aspirational; they are absolute. If a client needs analysis at 9 a.m., it’s there at 9 a.m. No hedging. No “iteration.” No “backlog.”

Moving into the tech agency space three years back was a shock. Here, deadlines seem to be flexible, scope negotiable, and overruns are quietly accepted as business-as-usual. If you question it, you’re told it’s “part of Agile delivery.”

But let’s be blunt: only 31% of IT projects are deemed successful; half limp across the line, and a fifth fail completely. That’s not an edge case. That’s a broken system.

THE AGILE MYTH

Agile was meant to fix this. When done properly, it’s pragmatic and effective. But too often, it’s theatre: sticky notes, sprint reviews, endless ceremonies. Progress is measured in rituals, not outcomes.

I’ve seen agencies use Agile less as a methodology and more as a shield. “We’re still iterating” becomes code for “we didn’t scope properly.” A backlog becomes a wish list no one has committed to. And all the while, the client pays for the drift.

Now, AI is emerging as the new shield. Agencies pitch it as the silver bullet - mysterious, powerful, and conveniently hard to challenge. “Let’s explore AI” becomes the modern way of deferring clarity. But technology, however advanced, can’t fix a delivery model built on fog.

WHAT CLIENTS ACTUALLY WANT

When you strip it back, clients aren’t asking for the impossible. They want:

  • Clarity of scope - knowing what’s in, what’s out, and what it will cost.
  • Reliability of deadlines - commitments that actually mean something.
  • Transparency - access to the same information the agency has.
  • Value for money - not endless invoices for rework and “change requests.”

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And yet, only 34% of organisations say they mostly or always finish projects on time. Imagine if airlines, hospitals, or banks ran with that level of reliability. In most industries, clients expect - and get - better.

WHAT WE'RE BUILDING WITH ENTOURAGE

Entourage exists to buck this trend.

  • Rigorous scoping. We define non-negotiables early and protect them throughout the build.
  • Fixed deadlines from sign-off. Not “indicative,” not “aspirational.” Fixed. If something needs to move, it’s treated as a change - priced transparently and agreed explicitly.
  • No information walls. Our clients see what we see: risks, assumptions, trade-offs. There are no hidden spreadsheets or quiet compromises.
  • Fair pricing. No hostage-style invoices. No upsell gymnastics. Just a clear agreement on value delivered.

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And the research supports this approach: teams with strong business acumen deliver better budget adherence, stronger schedule performance, and fewer outright failures. Put simply, discipline at the front end drives results at the back.

CLOSING: FROM ANALOGY TO ACCOUNTABILITY

So yes, tech agencies hate analogies - because analogies reveal how little accountability the industry has normalised. If you ordered a house and got half a roof, no one would nod politely and call it Agile. If you asked for a sink and got a shiny tap with no water, you wouldn’t call it an MVP.

I’ve seen how frustrating this is from the client side. I’ve lived the wasted time, the sunk costs, the compromised visions. And that’s why we’re building Entourage differently: as a fairly priced, dependable advisory model, paired with a production-ready tool now welcoming pilot clients.

Our promise is simple: we deliver to the highest quality, without compromise, on the deadlines we commit to. No scope roulette. No deadline confetti. No fog.

Because in the end, the best analogy is the simplest: if you order a sink, you should get a sink. With running water. On time.