It’s hard to go a few hours without reading another article or post declaring Agile dead. Some have valid points, many are just click-bait or trolls.
For the most part I’ve come to decide that people posting ‘Agile is Dead’ have little idea what agility is or what it looks like in reality. They certainly have never experienced it.
TACO Agile
Living in the San Antonio, TX area we have good tacos. I mean really good tacos. I’m not talking about these kinds of tacos!
I define TACO Agile As ‘Titles And Ceremonies Only’ Agile. You can replace ‘Titles’ with ‘Tools’ without losing the meaning. Teams that adopt a framework, assume the new titles & labels and now have different meetings. Or the same meetings with a new name.
What’s missing is an understanding of the purpose of the events. How they feed one another. How they are really implementations of feedback loops.
What’s also missing is meaningful change beyond the teams. Organizations continue to use management theories and techniques from the Industrial Era. More on that below.
I’m using Scrum as an example since it’s by far the most commonly used framework. But the framework should never be the goal. That’s another problem. See my short YouTube video on this by clicking here.
One of the first indicators of TACO Agile is the Scrum Master, or perhaps an Agile Coach, is asked to hold a Roles & Responsibilities event. Often this is re-titling people, creating something like a RACI, identifying the single throat to choke. Just in case things go south.
AIC – The Agile Industrial Complex
Thinking back to when I jumped with both feet into Scrum, around 2010 or maybe a little earlier, there were very few certifications. Scrum Alliance had a few with a well defined track to CST. I don’t remember Scrum.org having any back then. There were maybe a dozen or so “Agile” certs. Now there are literally hundreds.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against education in any way. I believe an Agile organization is a learning organization. But this was different. This was exploitation for money. Every little nook & cranny of “Agile” was broken down into dozens and dozens of certs of very little, if any, value. This continues to this day. These “certification mills” were at the forefront of ‘Agile for Profit’.
Next, or in parallel, enter the Big Name consultancies. These are companies that have been around for decades and decades. They are waterfall, traditional project management at their core. It’s in their DNA. It’s who they are.
They also saw the enormous piles of cash that organizations were almost giving away to anyone who claimed to be able to deliver to them the perceived “Agile” silver bullet. On the surface they spoke the words, they reassured, they sold the promised land. Yet underneath it all they were still waterfall, still traditional, all with an Agile “veneer” or false front.
Worse than not delivering, they were teaching all who were paying attention what “Agile” supposedly looked like. There was little to no increase in agility, just rigidly defined roles & events (see TACO Agile above). Other names referring to this environment are AINO (Agile In Name Only) and Cargo Cult Agile. We go through the motions mostly without understanding why. This is Agile as a noun, a thing we do or a framework/process we follow.
This damage will likely be the most difficult from which to recover.
And while that was happening the certification mills were busy cranking out barely trained, no experience, Agile “experts”. Everyone has to start somewhere so my complaint is not directly against such people. Or at least those that are honest about their lack of breadth and depth of Agile & Lean understanding.
Yet I saw on LinkedIn, and in real life, people who had just joined the Agile ranks a year or maybe 2 ago titling themselves “Agile Coach”. It takes years of working with multiple frameworks, multiple teams, multiple domains and expanding beyond Agile into other areas, such as Lean, to attain the necessary skills and knowledge to become an Agile Coach. But with no barrier to entry many very low experience people were “coaches”. And if you have amateurs doing the work of a professional, you can bet word gets around the “coaches” aren’t needed. The Big Consultancies were no better. Their people also became Agile “experts” after a bit of training.
So this is where we find ourselves. Enormous numbers of little or lightly skilled people with companies soured by the bad tastes they experienced.
The Organization is a CAS – Complex Adaptive System
Many startups begin their lives as very Agile organizations. People do what needs to be done, regardless of title. Working systems are loosely defined and updated, often quite frequently, in response to current needs, feedback and change. Over time, if they grow, traditional organizational systems such as hierarchy and bureaucracy are introduced to manage growth. This will likely erode the agility they once had.
Traditional organizations align with Fredrick Taylor’s principles defined in “Theory of Scientific Management“. Characteristics will include the belief that management “thinks” while workers “do”. Efficiency, keeping people busy every moment, is highly valued. Following a rigid, well defined process is paramount to success.
These characteristics assume the organization is a closed, ordered, rational system. That their environment changes slowly, if at all. Yet we know, since the time Taylor wrote his theories, that the rate of change is increasing. From slow linear change in early the 1900s to rapid, exponential change in many industries today.
Fast-paced change forces organizations, in order to survive, to be able to respond and adapt equally quickly. That belief necessitates a change in thinking. Viewing the organization as a living, breathing, full of life organism rather than a machine, is required. People within the organization need to be valued as humans, with goals, needs & desires of their own. Not simply another cog in the system or set of duties being performed without passion or interest.
“A Complex Adaptive System (CAS) is a dynamic network of many agents (which may represent cells, species, individuals, firms, nations) acting in parallel, constantly acting and reacting to what other agents are doing. The control of a CAS tends to be highly dispersed and decentralized.”
John H. Holland
One of the primary characteristics of such an organization is that it continues to reinvent itself and evolve. That the status quo is never good enough. Rapid response to change is necessary to survive and excel.
Another characteristics of a CAS is the emergence of self-organizing, autonomous agents. In the world of Agile, this can directly map to self-managed, self-organizing teams. Decisions that used to be made by senior management are pushed down closest to the work.
Teams unblock the need for approvals for many decisions. This decentralized decision making dramatically reduces delay. Intent based leadership (David Marquet) is now possible.
Networks of loosely coupled agents (teams), driven by purpose (strategy, goals, etc) begin to replace rigid hierarchy and bureaucracy. The organization begins to more quickly respond to change and adapt accordingly. Employees are viewed as capable and are trusted. The organization becomes greater than the sum of its parts.
An example of such a CAS is a bee colony. The queen bee is far too busy creating eggs to provide direction on such decisions of building the hive, finding pollen, or maintaining peace within the colony.
To reduce risk, smaller, safe-to-fail experiments are utilized in response to the desire to change. Learning from this experimentation is highly valued. Shorter and shorter feedback loops are implemented to enhance learning.
Agile is Emergent
Enter Agile as an adjective rather than a noun.
Emergent (adj): in the process of coming into being or becoming prominent.
Oxford Dictionary
When the signatories met in Snowbird in 2001, they represented a number of different practices and frameworks. Yet the resulting Manifesto for Agile Software Development contains no such references. It is comprised entirely of a set of 4 Values and 12 Principles. These values and principles represent characteristics of increasing agility.
Agile has been represented by many as a mindset. This interpretation reinforces the concept of Agile as a way of approaching work, a way of thinking about work. It is a characteristic, not a concrete method, framework or practice.
By viewing the organization as a CAS, utilizing experimentation to evolve, creating networks of self-organizing teams, moving ever closer to the value and principles of the Manifesto, agility begins to emerge.
The focus on framework or rigid control begins to melt away. Replaced by a direct focus on value, continuous improvement and respect for people.
Ways to adapt become increasingly agile. The organization itself begins to respond to change as quickly as it perceives the need to change.
This is Agile as an adjective, emergent, as was the intent all along.
Wrapping Up
The noun representation of “Agile”, which exists in too many organizations around the world, built upon a lack of understanding, does need to die. Kill TACO Agile fast and with extreme prejudice. That flavor was never the intent. It’s the result of Agile being hijacked for massive profit.
The World and development of software products will continue to get more complex, will become more unpredictable. That’s the environment Agile is meant to help tame. To increase agility, to become more resilient. To find better ways to solve complex problems. To understand Agile is an adjective. Embrace what was meant to be, long live Agile.
For a more complete examination of CAS in an Agile environment, I recommend the book Enterprise Agility by Sunil Mundra.
If you liked this post and want to learn more about Agile, Lean or Leadership please consider purchasing a book from my Recommended Reading page.
Until next time!
