Agile at 20: The Failed Rebellion

The important piece that gets forgotten is that Agile was openly, militantly anti-management in the beginning

Boom! A great way to start. Now we’re off:

The project manager’s thinking, as represented by the project plan, constrains the creativity and intelligence of everyone else on the project to that of the plan, rather than engaging everyone’s intelligence to best solve the problems.

And then a summary of where we’ve landed in the history of Agile:

It turns out that prioritizing individuals and interactions is a hard concept to sell. It’s much easier to sell processes and tools.

It turns out that working software is harder to produce than unrealistic plans and reams of documentation.

It turns out that collaborating with customers requires trust and vulnerability, not always present in a business setting.

It turns out that responding to change often gets outweighed by executives wanting to feel in control and still legitimately needing to make long-term plans for their businesses.

Where Agile ended up is the antithesis of its vision. You either die a hero or you life long enough to become the villain.

The iron lays in the attempt to scale a concept anchored in the small scale.

Trying to scale a methodology that focuses on individuals and interactions will inevitably lead to problems – and erode the original value of the methodology.