Excess agility is harmful
If, however, during the introductory phase, the set deadlines are too short, problems from the initial iteration then carry over to the next stage and very soon the problems accumulate. This brings about a constant need for overtime, which then leads to exhaustion and increasingly high turnover rates.
Excessive pressure of this kind can also lead to higher error rates, use of problematic shortcuts and a lower quality of the delivered products, all of which then creates a need for additional reworks. These cautionary words come from the INSEAD business school website.
Trade-offs between pressure and performance
Although the standard iterative cycle is usually 20 working days long, different iteration lengths are suitable for certain types of projects and there are varying degrees of tolerance for errors (e.g. retail vs military). A tight schedule creates discipline; if, however, you overdo it, you will push people closer to burnout.
If iterations are much too short, this may hurt the overall performance. Agile’s normative recommendations should be assessed and adjusted for the unique situation of teams in your company.
Track fatigue of staff
Project managers should collect data on the human aspects of their projects, mainly fatigue and turnover. Such assessments need not be too lengthy but they are still a good idea, given the expense of hiring new developers.
When people leave you, you lose their knowledge and know-how. So allow your project managers to experiment and find out what works best for them.
-jk-