Agile: Why Agile REALLY SUCKS right now and how do we fix it!

In the previous article we discussed how Rational Unified Process died because ALMOST EVERYONE missed the underlying principles of Iterative and Incremental development!

At that time people interpreted the famous hump diagram (above) in the worst waterfall way posible: Perform the FULL business modeling, followed by the FULL requirements gathering, followed by full development and testing and then move to support and optionally decommission. On top such idiocy, companies believed that using Rational Tools and writing requirements in a Use Case format fulfilled the requisites to get into the RUP club!

Almost 20 years after the proclamation of the Agile manifesto, ALMOST EVERYONE of the companies continue to miss the point of Agility!

As Martin Fowler very eloquently has stated it, Agile is about Individuals figuring out their Interactions and deciding ALL THE TIME what works better for them!

So why is it that Agile SUCKS big time right now?

How many team members in organizations are allowed to establish their own teams and experiment with any Agile practice as they would like in total freedom???? Probably very, very few!

In most organizations teams are assembled by managers and then most TOLD to use SCRUM and SAFe or LeSS or whatever without any input from the teams and team members!

Companies continue to treat employees as it was defined by Frederick Taylor in his Scientific Management work:

READ THIS WITH SCRUM and SAFe IN MIND!!:

"It is only through enforced standardization of methods, enforced adoption of the best implements and working conditions, and enforced cooperation that this faster work can be assured. And the duty of enforcing the adoption of standards and enforcing this cooperation rests with management alone.[19]"

TAYLOR CONTINUES!!:

"... one of the very first requirements for a man who is fit to handle pig iron as a regular occupation is that he shall be so stupid and so phlegmatic that he more nearly resembles in his mental make-up the ox than any other type. The man who is mentally alert and intelligent is for this very reason entirely unsuited to what would, for him, be the grinding monotony of work of this character."

We continue to enforce Taylorism, camouflaged into SCRUM and SAFe and expect those mentally alert people to shut up and do the work!

Agile was a rebellion against Taylorism and the stupidity of scientific management. Is not that people are stupid and/or phlegmatic as Taylor proclaims, but in reality the processes that Taylor proposed forced people into stupid and demeaning situations that still ripple around the world.

Is it even possible that everyone in an organization, out of their own decision, will decide to follow SCRUM and SAFe, without being forced to do so? Even worse, would they decide out of their own will to stick with SCRUM and SAFe without being forced to? Off course NOT!.

So, what do we do?

What about something really simple:

[CIO]: We would like to apologize to all of you in this organization for treating you like "stupid and so phlegmatic" people. We realize that all of you are "mentally alert and intelligent is for this very reason entirely unsuited to what would, for [you], be the grinding monotony of work of this character"

[CIO]: from now on, we will treat you with the upmost respect, understanding that only if you are free to decide who do you want to work with and what Processes, if any, make sense to you, you will assume the responsibility and accountability for your own work.

[CIO]: we will always be here to support you and advise you in anything you might need and to share with you our findings about the goals and strategies of the company. It will be up to all of you to make those goals and strategies a reality. We expect all of you to challenge us all the time and also challenge your Interactions and Processes all the time. We do not want to go back to the command and control of the past and we expect all of us to avoid becoming stale in our work.

[CIO]: one final word, if you believe that your personal principles are not aligned with our goals, please come see me, we want to make sure nothing implicit gets in the way of the best relationship we can all ever have.

It is THAT easy!