When agile began in a ski lodge in Utah, it was the product of seventeen leaders in software development. It is not a perfect document and others have made numerous suggestions for revision. The agile movement has balkanized because people have different interpretations of the values and principles outlined in the manifest. Finally, the challenge of scaling agile to accommodate large software projects has further split the community into competing camps. I have attempted to stay above the bitter disputes but I have taken sides on a few issues like no-estimates. The conflicts among agile professionals hide something which all of us agree. The purpose of agile is to get work done.
Agile does not promise to get work done faster; it promises to get customers involved with work so that businesses can deliver value to those customers. Agile professionals ship software, develop marketing campaigns and provide services that offer value. Anything else is differences in style. These styles range from prescriptive approaches for organizations beginning the process of agile to experimental methods which allow teams to self-organize and come up with unique ways of doing things.
Many of the disputes in the agile community are about how well people are following the steps of agile or scrum. It is an unhealthy disagreement about the process. Instead, everyone in the agile community should focus on delivery. The shipping of products is what pays the bills and continues to build the agile movement.
To review, agile is about delivery. Individuals are more important than development processes, and both are subservient to providing value to customers. Anything else is waste.
Until next time.
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