Often our clients ask us “Which projects are not compatible with an Agile approach?” They are probably expecting us to reply that package implementations, mainframe technology, highly regulated industries or break/fix teams should not use Agile. But any project effort is compatible with using and iterative/incremental approach like Agile. What are not compatible are people. When people cannot adapt their own worldviews to some thing compatible with the Agile Manifesto, then failure may result. But it won’t be the technical situation or the business needs. It will be people.
Source: The Journey to Enterprise Agility – Systems Thinking and Organizational Legacy, Daryl Kulak & Hong Li, Springer Verlag