Deconstructing Agile

Have we lost our way with Agile? Are we in a state where we believe we are “doing Agile” when in fact we are not? Is it that a company can only claim to be Agile if they can tick all the boxes with regards to story structure, sprint length, meeting length etc. that has been mandated by expensive consultants? How did Agile come into being in the first place, and have we now twisted it to the point where it has no value?

We must dismantle Agile and attempt to discover the meaning, perhaps creating artefacts along the way which echo the essence of the original. To do this, we go back to the beginning with the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. In Utah in 2001, seventeen men came together with a wealth of experience including XP, Scrum and Lean Principles and all agreed that a new framework was required to assist with the issues they were having. I’m sure you’ve all seen this before, but here it is again:

What came next? What has happened since the manifesto was crafted to now? As a collective we had to draw a timeline of the journey of Agile from manifesto to the present day.

There were some early adopters, followed by a wave of Agile sweeping throughout the world. This was helped with the creation of the Certificated Scrum Master qualification (which was initially a joke, but ended up being the only way you could infiltrate an organisation and your voice be heard).

Thousands of books on the subject have been written, as well as Agile Coaches and consultants rising up to support companies switching their ways of working. Scaled frameworks have been created to convince management that Agile can be applied to more than a small team. We end on present day, with large scale company wide transformations occurring and a wealth of tools that have been developed to help teams with their processes.

It was discussed that Agile is like a religion, which started as a few simple rules to live by, but now the books and scaled frameworks have added additional weight to the point where it misses the point.

To discover this we go back to the beginning, and need to analyse the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. We divided into groups and try to sum up each of the four statements in one word. We came up with some initial suggestions, then shared it back to the group and then submitted the final which was:

This really hit home with me, as I truly believe that the heart of what we are trying to achieve with Agile is putting the focus on PEOPLE and TRUST.

People are now doubting Agile in their day to day. What started off as a lightweight manifesto now has more frameworks around it, more and more certifications to be able to justify the advice you can give, and some consultancies just using it as a money making machine. Some business owners get completely the wrong idea, and think it just as a way of moving faster. Everyone zooms in on the final point, “Responding to change over following a plan” but forget that the first three points are around the interactions, quality working software and collaboration. This all requires trust in order to work which can take time to build.

We learned that the Agile Manifesto was almost named the Adaptive Manifesto and was only decided as Agile by a marginal win. The next exercise was to look at the word agile, and see what other adjectives could be used which were just as good, if not better to encapsulate what we are trying to achieve with this framework. Such suggestions included:

This was the “a-ha” moment for many. This is what we are trying to achieve with this framework. Bringing these feelings into what we do every day, stripped bare of any standardised jargon.

We’ve now zoomed in on Agile, the history and its core. To give us a fresh perspective, we then researched three non-Agile related business methodologies.

We dived into each of them, summarising the main ideas and how we may incorporate them in our day to day.

This relies on the use of consent rather than majority voting for making decisions, where a consensus can only be reached if no member has a “paramount objection”, and decision-making after discussion by people who know each other. Trust is necessary for this to work, and it is believed that this method will help to build trust over time.

These companies are employee owned, allowing each member to feel invested in what they do. There is open communication about how money is spent, allowing the members to see whether pay rises or bonuses will be small in favour of reinvesting for the long term. Decisions are made democratically, and each member has the ability to input into decisions through open forums, allowing more freedom as they are not at the mercy of external shareholders.

Every meeting starts and ends with a period of silence. This allows focus for the task at hand, and reflection once you have finished. No one interrupts , as a period of silence happens once one person finishes speaking, and the silence is only ended once someone else feels moved to make another contribution. There is no authority figure, everyone is equal and the meeting takes as long as it needs to for them to find a unity in their decisions.

All three of these methodologies compliment Agile in their way. The following themes tie directly into what we need to achieve with our working processes.

As with all workshops of this nature, the content is always interesting, but I gain the most value from connecting with likeminded individuals, as well as conversing with people much more experienced than myself!

I believe I’ve got to the core of what the manifesto was trying to achieve, and now I need to make a pledge to myself to try and bring the heart of Agile back into what I do everyday. The healthy part of Agile, which we all agreed was still the best way to work revolves around collaboration, honesty, meaningful work and evolutionary development. I identified these next steps to take in how I approach my work.

Wish me luck, I can’t wait to see how it pans out!

Related posts:

I want to create a world where we are all self-aware and we can all come together and help one another. I am tapping into my subconscious potential. Which is infinite power and I am finally ready to…

Mi nombre es Molena.. “Take and learn” is published by ASOCIACIÓN DE LA SALUD COMUNITARIA.

Most of us take it for granted that we can open a bank account or a credit card. But the truth is, according to the World Bank, close to one-third of adults — 1.7 billion — are still unbanked, and…