Agile is not the new normal, not yet...
Dr. Hrishikesh Karekar
Delivery Executive @ Capgemini | Agile Leadership, Talent Management
The agile manifesto came out in 2001. That was about 18 years ago...What started as a handful of people uncovering better ways of developing software and helping others to do it has transformed into something far bigger. The agile way of working has already been adopted by major software corporations around the world and making inroads already beyond software development.
So is everyone "agile" already? This is a question I have been pondering over the last few weeks (also via linkedin). My current hypothesis : Agile is not the new normal, not yet..
The fact that we still refer to it as "Agile" and to the previous methods as "traditional" or "waterfall" itself is suggestive enough to say that a lot of ground is yet to be covered by agile, before it can become the all pervading operating model. There are a lot of organizations out there that have are just embarking on their agile transformations or haven't even started yet. Their businesses are still not at the tipping point where the burning platform necessitates the change to an agile delivery model.
Yet, many of these players are not untouched by agile either. While they may not have formally embarked on the transformation, there will be pockets in the organization that are experimenting with agile already. They will have a long way to go before they can call themselves agile as an organization.
In places where we see or so they claim that the entire organization is really agile, it more often is the case of generalization with a bias for the positive view. There will be pockets or program which are really living up to what "agile" would mean, but the bulk of them would be more close to "checkbox agile". If an audit would be done, they will pass it with flying colors. They have the processes, they have the terminology, they have the roles, but do they really have business agility? Well some have, most don't. This is what some would also refer as being agile versus doing agile. Or that there are practices but the culture is not yet agile.
To refine the hypothesis shared earlier : Definitely agile is no longer a novelty or a differentiator. Most if not all have had experiences with it, however true business agility or actually being agile is still elusive for the majority. True business agility is the quest I believe. The scrums, the kanbans, the SAFes are a means to an end - the goal to truly "be agile". The goal for many now, especially those who think they are left behind is to to catch up on the processes and the frameworks and start to "do agile", however only when the goal will be come true business agility that is when we can say agile is on it way to be the new normal.
So still there is a long journey ahead before agile becomes the new normal. And maybe it never will, or rather should never become the new normal. The agile approach was never a process oriented approach. It is an approach to discover better ways of developing software. That quest is a never ending one. A quest that continues forever.
Program Manager @ London Borough of Camden | Process Improvement, Cloud Migration
6 年What’s new in “Agile” many T&T goes back good 50+ years before the manifesto was sign, values and principles are new indeed. But then comes Scrum, XP, Less, DSDM and list goes on. “New Normal” if limited to just SW industry it is becoming normal with many SW Cos using it as standard practice or at least taking effort and initiative either because it’s in fashion or because value is recognised. But is it as successful in non-SW Cos? Well we’re witnessing a new term a new methodology get introduced every 4-5 years by Like minded Agilest with few variations and few new rules, new titles and new wrappings. A project wether waterfall or agile project is about change most methodologies of agile specific to SW development (and effective when applied in true spirit of agile values and principles) and not as generalised as other structured waterfall methodologies those can be equally applied to SW or non-SW projects.
The trouble with much that has been written and implemented with about Agile is really focused on development team. I'm not saying in anyway that this was wrong, however the problem with most 'Agile Transformations' is that we need to look at how the agile cycles affects and can be integrated with other corporate cycles. To have a well running organization scaled for growth all departments must be on the same cycles or at least well integrated. For example, I have yet to see a good model of how Agile development can be incorporated in Executive Strategic Planning (although Atlassian had a portfolio module that I used to integrate quarterly strategic planning with Agile dev cycles). And there will be departments, like Finance and Sales that likely will not ever adopt an Agile framework (and likely shouldn't). So, until there is clearer connectors between agile dev cycles and other departments using waterfall like cycles for planning and projects the adoption of Agile will be slow.?