Anti-Agile pragmatic agility
Agile Is Dead (Long Live Agility)
— Dave Thomas, co-author of the Agile Manifesto
Couldn’t agree more.
A lot of what Agile has become is just this:
Reduced to an iterative methodology of doing things (often without enough upfront thought towards how the sprints will add up towards a meaningful medium term goal). Fact of the matter is that most businesses don’t operate that way, so how can their software?
Most large and medium enterprises that talk about iterative methodologies continue to focus strongly on:
- Having the right processes and tools
- Documenting extensively
- Strong contracts and liability protection
- Planning for a quarter or a year or even 3 years
Contrast this with the Agile Manifesto.
We need to rethink our approach. Most businesses need to plan for a sustainable future, need to be prepared for employee turnover and fast ramp-ups, need to protect from liabilities, and need ways to ensure standardized (read: cheaper) ways to monitor for agency costs. It is time to recognize that these needs aren’t going away anytime soon and we need to find newer methodologies that meet these business needs while allowing organizations to operate with agility in the spirit of the Manifesto.
There have been businesses that have been experimenting with Waterfall+Agile hybrid methods. At the end of the day, most businesses intrinsically want to be agile (verb) and they will continue to drive agility in whatever way they can, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the spirit of the Manifesto will be upheld.
Its time for a rethink.
Meanwhile, here is an interesting approach to agility:
(http://www.slideshare.net/RazorfishTechnology/scrumforteamspresentation-v7final)