Scott Ambler shared two articles recently that have stirred my thinking.
It’s almost like I’m going through the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). And to say that I’m going through them is a misnomer. I think I’m sitting in the first four and grappling with acceptance to move on.
But as I navigated my feelings, I realized I wanted to share a few reactions and thoughts.
A bit about Scott
I’ve admired Scott for many, many years. He’s one of those agilists with the deep and broad experiential chops I often amplify. He’s done it the old-fashioned way—he’s earned it.
Before all the agile hoopla, he was a guiding light on OO modeling, database architectures, and large-scale data. As I recall, he wrote a few books on these topics. Then, as the agile movement emerged, he used his software development SME position to jump on that bandwagon and quickly became a thought leader, protagonist, influencer, and guide.
Again, a few books emerged around Disciplined Agile delivery, which he and Mark Lines later “sold to” PMI. So, he directly added certifications, frameworks, books, and ideas to the agile community. Dare I say it? He became a part of the Agile Industrial Complex 😉
Note: this is simply from memory, please do your own research, but I think this is relatively on-point.
Largely Right
From my perspective, Scott is largely right in his first article. I particularly agree with the final point—
Agile Isn’t Dead, But the Agile Gold Rush Is
The agile gold rush is over, and it isn’t coming back. We, the agile community, shat the bed with too much agile certification; too much framework adoption; too much fluff; too much purity; and too many fads.
Executives are clearly frustrated with agile, having seen little return on investment (ROI) after sometimes spending millions on agile training and coaching. Is it any surprise they’re not signing up for more of the same?
which resonated deeply with me. His recommendations in the second article are also sound, if not extreme, in their presentation.
However, this post is primarily NOT about the content of Scott’s articles. Instead, it inspired me to reflect on—
The overall agile community's role in this erosion (bed shatting).
The direct and indirect roles that Scott had in the erosion.
And, by extension, what role did a much smaller group of community influencers, me included, have in it?
You see, I’ve been noodling on the fact that many, many folks are describing the shat, but few are exploring or taking responsibility for the role they played in the shatting—either by action or inaction.
It’s always easier to cast stones from the sidelines rather than discuss the role you played while on the field.
The “Community” is NOT Equal
What’s particularly troubling to me is when influencers like Scott make statements like this, and I realize that they were also contributors to the problem. But there is never any mention of taking some personal accountability. It’s not just Scott; it’s so much broader than him.
Amongst other folks like—
Me, yes, Me!
The Manifesto signatories.
The Agile Industrial Complex.
The hundreds of Certification trainers.
The thousands of Agile Coaches (real or fake).
The hundreds of Agile book authors and pundits.
All community influencers and thought leaders.
Importantly, the certification bodies (Scrum Alliance, Scrum.org, ScrumInc, Kanban University, Scaled Agile, iCAgile, etc.)
My point is that not everyone in the community is equally responsible. Not everyone equally contributed to our mess. And I would argue that an equality view won’t help us out of it either.
Those same people I mentioned above will need to step into the arena and move from critical opinions, death proclamations, and woeful inaction to doing something tangible to change the bed.
Two examples
For years, Dan Mezick has challenged the community and particular organizational bodies to oppose prescriptive agility. He’s spoken about getting it mentioned in our frameworks, our coaching ethics, and our community discussions.
I’ll leave the research effort to you, but his posts are out there.
He’s been challenging folks so much that I sometimes think of him as Don Quixote of this.
You know what’s sad, though. Not one leading agilist (influencer, change agent, expert, author, organizational body) took him seriously and supported his efforts. Not one. Nor did any of the organizations accept his challenges.
I’ve been calling out the fluffy nature of Agile Coaching and Coaches for many years. Again, please do your research on my blogs.
I’ve been talking about the need for coaches to deepen their domain skills, leverage far more than a Professional Coaching stance, improve our Ethics definition and practice, and move from multi-day classes/certifications to longer and deeper learning cohorts.
I’ve even had direct conversations with folks from the Scrum Alliance and iCAgile about these topics, trying to influence and partner with them to make positive changes. And again, just as in Dan Mesick’s case, nobody joined me in my efforts to improve some of the things Scott highlights (causes and improvements).
Again, sad!
Calling Y’all Out
So, I’m calling out Scott that he can’t simply sit on the bed, talk about the shit, then talk about the cleaning, and then walk away. That isn’t helpful. And I’m calling all of us out with Scott. Call this a subset in the agile community, the benefactors of the Agile Industrial Complex.
We need to become aware of our unequal role in shatting the bed and recognize the responsibility, commitment, and effort we need to make in changing the sheets.
To be clear, I’m only using Scott Ambler as an inspirational example here. Scott is not the problem. WE, the aforementioned groups, are the problem.
Wrapping Up
I’ll end this post by amplifying how Scott closed his second article. I emphasized what I believe to be the key message—
Agile Isn’t Dead…. Yet
The agile gold rush may be dead, and the agile movement has taken a significant hit because of that, but it isn’t a fatal hit. Agile will recover if the agile community chooses to take a better path. I’ve described several paths that individual agilists may choose to travel, and if enough of us do so then things will get better. Anyone who decides to wait around for the good old days to come back will be waiting a very long time.
For the next few years “agile” will be a bit of a swear word in most organizations, and frankly we deserve that. I don’t think we’re going to see a replacement word that will put a veneer of respectability on the agile movement. However, if we do then my money is on “adaptive”. Similarly, I don’t think we’re going to see a new movement any time soon that will replace agile. I could be wrong, but I’m not sensing any glimmerings of anything viable.
There is a lot of great agile stuff out there, some of which I’ve referred to in these two articles, stuff that is solid and will stand the test of time. But this stuff has been tainted with the agile brush and it will take some time to wash the agile stink off it. Have patience, it will all work out in the long run although it will be painful in the short term.
It’s not about being agile, frankly it was never about being agile, instead it was always about being effective. Focus on that and you’ll do ok.
I do feel that I’ve been actively doing this for years. While part of the Agile Industrial Complex, I’ve always endeavored to walk my talk and maintain a safe distance from it.
But I can, should, and need to do more.
And there are a few, like me, who’ve been trying. But it’s not enough. So, everyone who has complained about Agile in any way over the past year or more…
Get off the bed and onto the field. You want it better, get in the freekin’ game, take some risks, and make it better!
Shatters of the Agile World—You are no longer Anonymous.
Stay agile, my friends,
Bob.