The Agile Manifesto – the mushy stuff of values and culture.

The Agile Manifesto (TAM) - 20 (17) years ago (first version published in 2018), 17 people gathered and produced 17 content items with a significant influence and impact on not only SW development, but also project management, organising, enterprising, leadership etc. - in short on how to be human in corporate life, among other humans and technology. This is a small token of celebration & appreceation in the 20th (17th) living year of TAM.

TAM consists namely of the 4 Core components (vaule-guided meta-principles), the 12 principles and the history (About the manifesto) of Agile explaining how and why agile came into existence.

Instead of reciting the manifesto and principles, this small piece pays homage to The Agile manifesto (TAM) history (original can be found here) - predominantly the Ethos of Agile – The "Why" as the history section states:

“ Agile Methodologies is about the mushy stuff of values and culture”.

Most know the "what" of TAM and the mythical tale of "how" it came about - fewer are acquainted with the Why, in the sense that less focus is generally put into fully comprehending its historical and philosophical foundation.

From many years of experience (in different roles, public | private | internal | external) it is easy to recognise that we tend to forget the raison d'être explained in the history section (About the manifesto). Actually, I also encounter quite a few that has no clue about the philosophical implications embedded in historic heritage in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, 2001.

There's no doubt in my mind the most fruitful and logical way into the manifesto starts with the history section, whereas the 4 +12 are products of the contemplation process that is depicted in the About section (History: The Agile Manifesto, by Jim Highsmith for the Agile Alliance).

What's in history?

Sometimes in history, great work is produced out of groups that in theory does not contain much feasibility of success. Often also emerging in contingent and unpredictable ways, but most often with a higher purpose (e.g. Manhattan project).

In this case, the higher purpose came from within each of the 17 participants in an unregulated way - meaning it was not imposed (unlike the Manhattan project). From individual personal care, enthusiasm and passion an odd group of 17 "organisational anarchists" joined-up structurally coupled by professional interests and a sense of opportunity to be "freed from the baggage of Dilbertesque corporations" life. An attempt to humanise life in corporations, providing a tolerable working environment wherein taking into account it is humans driving enterprises - not machinery, finance processes, accounting guidelines and predictable maintenance….. Personally, I claim and view the TAM to be an early sign of humanisation trend also spurred on by millennials demanding freedom from the controlling cultures of:

sales-centric & product centric companies…….blind to the opportunity of infusing the human experience represented by a `people-first′ concept (The Human Experience in the digital Age, Stephen Plante, BRMI).

I do believe the claim is substantiated in the TAM and most substantially in the History section as TAM is based on a universal human & philosophical foundation which I also subscribe to the reason why it actually succeeded in the first place - a common purpose of a higher order. TAM is not a prescriptive methodology (like TOGAF, PRINCE2 etc.) it is moreover a normative expression of intent in balanced expressions producing the grey tones that life consists of, and at the same time a stand underlining the importance of both pragmatic and philosophical statements.

In the History section we get a sense of the ambience in the gathering and the "deeper themes (passions) that drive many, but not all, to be sure, members of the alliance", so important in order to understand the what and the cardinal why of TAM came about:

“At the close of the two-day meeting, Bob Martin joked that he was about to make a "mushy" statement.

Showcasing the inherent fear that the statement was without firm structure and boundaries, a sign of the heritage of the 17 originating from experiences in Dilbertesque corporations. Entering into unknown territory and still standing in midstream is a daunting experience for most of us.

"But while tinged with humour, few disagreed with Bob’s sentiments—that we all felt privileged to work with a group of people who held a set of compatible values, a set of values based on trust and respect for each other and promoting organizational models based on people, collaboration, and building the types of organizational communities in which we would want to work.

Emphasising two cardinal traits of humans - firstely, we are social creatures forming our lives based on the values we hold and live by. Secondly, Trust and respect being fundamental for human interaction, inclusiveness, jointness as opposed to their anti-phenomena. It strikes right at the core of the normative foundation of all cultures - Freedom (a universal human requirement) *.

"At the core, I believe Agile Methodologists are really about"mushy" stuff—about delivering good products to customers by operating in an environment that does more than talk about "people as our most important asset" but actually "acts" as if people were the most important and lose the word "asset".

So, the raison d'être is NOT an attempt to devise a new methodology, so that we can produce SW faster and at a lower cost, it's about creating - hence repeating:

" an environment that does more than talk about "people as our most important asset" but actually "acts" as if people were the most important and lose the word "asset".

That's probably the imperative task that lies ahead for many of us still - to achieve this will definitely enhance the level of freedom.

Signs of human life

Evidence can be found out there e.g. the story of Barry-Wehmiller also portrayed in the book "Everybody Matters - The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People like Family" By Bob Chapman (CEO @ Barry-Wehmiller and Raj Sisodia with foreword by Simon Sinek) - "We measure success by the way we touch the lives of people" or "Firms of Endearment - how world-class companies profit from passion and purpose". The work of Jeffrey Pfeffer e.g. "Dying for a Paycheck", Gallup: "State of the global Workplace" and many many more contribute from different perspectives to the ongoing debate of what is essentially about (creating) Freedom.

Also visible trends within Design and architecture - Design Thinking, Enterprise Design are people-centric. Theories of complex adaptive systems and derived practices are centred around human nature and dynamic group processes (Ralph D. Stacey et.al.) and massive contributions by the amazing group of people from Cognitive Edge - Dave Snowden, Sonja Blignaut, Jules Yim etc. They all have several things in common. Besides the outset, in people, they share conditions we all do and experience every day - namely iteration, unpredictability, jointness, interaction etc. - unless you attempt to live your life on your own like a hermit.

Many thanks go out to the agile bunch for revitalising part of our cultural inheritance, thanks to all the true Agile Evangelists out there for pushing and embedding the thinking (raison d'être) over the methods (co-developed).

Indications from elsewhere

In 2018 I stumbled on an interesting item in a Gartner agenda - "Gartner Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit 2018", a particular heading caught my eye: "Stop Doing Scrum — Be Agile David Norton".

It is spot-on - Agile is closer to a philosophy than a methodology, so we should stop doing "Agile / Scrum" and start being Agile and take care of the Mushy Stuff that means so much to all of us, the essence of life (hopefully never to be put in an excel or ERP system to be misused for controlling and micro-managing people in corporations). Over the years I have witnessed attempts of “Agilisation”, many of which claiming to be agile by implementing a SCRUM method. The analogy to religion is obvious – faith without action is a dead faith, as is action without faith | A method without a philosophy behind it is just a method (tool) - the real value is within the conceptual perception and exploration (jointly).

Another illustration – military have been “scrumming” for centuries, which does not per se make them agile in every aspect. In addition military safeguard SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) in environments of life and death. Special forces “scrum” in planned & unplanned manners and based on the events occurring, as the philosophy behind these constructs – their manifesto could be:

·     Team over procedures

·     Working arms over user guides

·     Blue force collaboration over command and control

·     Enemy engagement response over following a plan

Agile is as much about welcoming the event: the what is, what could it be, could it be different, what could it become, what was it meant to be…., in short, “the meaning of the event and the event of meaning” as leadership philosopher Ole Fogh Kirkeby and others have been so kind to explore in-depth.

Again, many thanks go out to the agile bunch for revitalising part of our cultural inheritance, thanks to all the true Agile Evangelists out there for pushing and embedding the thinking (raison d'être) over the methods (co-developed).

So the story goes - wrapping up

I could go on forever, but I shall not - Exiting on a quotation from TAM history:

“In order to succeed in the new economy, to move aggressively into the era of e-business, ecommerce, and the web, companies have to rid themselves of their Dilbert manifestations of make-work and arcane policies. This freedom from the inanities of corporate life attracts proponents of Agile Methodologies and scares the begeebers (you can’t use the word ‘shit’ in a professional paper) out of traditionalists . Quite frankly, the Agile approaches scare corporate bureaucrats— at least those that are happy pushing process for process’ sake versus trying to do the best for the "customer" and deliver something timely and tangible and "as promised"—because they run out of places to hide.”

Always remembering:

“So, in the final analysis, the meteoric rise of interest in—and sometimes tremendous criticism of— Agile Methodologies is about the mushy stuff of values and culture .”

Notes

*) The great Greek Square, ref. 1. “This is also the Greek philosophers′ great square and thus the normative foundation of Western culture”, p.31. (Ole Fogh Kirkeby, The Virtue of Leadership). Phronesis is added in later writings.

Some references of interest.

Ole Fogh Kirkeby, Professor in management philosophy and leadership:

1. The Virtue of Leadership, Copenhagen Business School Press, 2008.

2. The new Protreptic – the Concept and the Art: Copenhagen Business school Press, 2009, p.50.

J. Zachman, R.T. Burlton & R.G. Ross: Business Agility Manifesto materials available for download. Had the pleasure of meeting the three living legends at the Business Agility World tour in Copenhagen, Denmark in February 2018. Passion is the word that strikes home when witnessing the three amigos in action.

Stephen Plante: The Human Experience in the Digital Age , BRM Institute 2017.

Sriram Narayan: Agile IT Organization Design: Pearson Education, Inc., 2015. First 87 pages extract @ https://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780133903355/samplepages/9780133903355.pdf and author video @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfE-TdknOJ8 To me probably one of the best books on the subject covering, explaining and illustrating core concepts of Agile thinking and execution.

Michael Sahota: An Agile Adoption and Transformation Survival Guide: Working with Organizational Culture, 2012. (Available @ https://www.infoq.com/culture-methods)

Ralph D. Stacey: Strategy as order emerging from Chaos, (Sadly NOT publicly available - can be requested through Researchgate).

The significance of Stacey publications is immense. Sad that, so few are publicly available - hereby also encouraging more OPEN ACCESS (sponsors out there).

Milan Guenther: Intersection – How Enterprise Design Bridges the gap between Business, Technology and People: Morgan Kaufman/Elsevier, Inc. 2013. See more about the book and methodology.

Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia: Everybody Matters - the extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family, Portfolio Penguin, 2015, USA.

I'm a fairly seasoned and experienced veteran manoeuvring in & out across the DMZ in global corporations enabling strategy, digital adoption and culture embedding - yet a novice of life in its totallity. I have a "hyper" hybrid background in leadership, liaison & relationship management, "production engineering (BSc)", "Officer in Danish Army", "Master in philosophy - Ethics and Values in Organisations" & coaching, "Master IT - Organisation, strategy & governance", project/program/portfolio and enterprise investment in ICT/Digital management. The majority of my professional life in large organisations Danish Defence, Vestas, Bestseller, SAP, SiemensGamesa. Silo demolition and boundary spanner expert. Predominantly focusing on the human interactions and relationships that form the basis for collaboration between social creatures called humans. Centred around Value-based cultural transformation focusing on fusing Enterprise-, Organisational -and people development through the transitioning of the 3Ts of relationship modes (transactional, transmissional, transformational) approach to engagement and relationship management from a people-centric and agile philosophy outset.

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Digital Human.pro

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