#AgileManifesto2020 - An experiment in practicing what we preach

The Agile Manifesto needs an update. *Spits out water* "WHAT!?" I hear you ask? How very dare you. This is genuinely the sort of response I get when I make this statement. The response is almost visceral. Is this guy really questioning our holy bible?

How about another hard pill to swallow? We have failed as Agile practitioners when it comes to the Agile Manifesto.

Now, before you get out your pitchforks and chase me through proverbial village square, hear me out... There is method to my madness.

Let's first examine the facts;

• The pioneers behind the manifesto - were all software engineers.
• They were all middle aged white males

Whilst this doesn't at all devalue their contribution, even the purist of agile purists will have a hard time convincing me that this represents a diverse lens through which to look.

Additionally, these gents had a lot of years worth of experience and are thought leaders in the software industry. This should absolutely be acknowledged. But.. let's do some raw calculations.

A quick search on LinkedIn will tell you that there are 269,000 people who have given themselves the title of 'Agile Coach'.

If we broaden the search further and limit it to anyone with the word 'Agile' in their title, we get 5,820,000 people. This won't even include those following the growing trend of weird and wonderful titles such as 'Digital Overlord', 'Dream Alchemist' and 'Wizard of light bulb moments'. It also won't include those titling themselves 'Project Manager' or any derivation, of which many of these people will have agile experience.

So let's go with 5,820,000 as our starting point. We shall embrace some reductio ad absurdum and assume that all of these people had only 1 month of experience with agile ways of working (This could be the case, but I'm sure for the vast majority, it's closer to years).

The collective total experience in years of these 5,820,000 people would be 485,000.

485,000 years of experience in various industries, cultures & company sizes. That's a lot of years of experience, a wealth of experience that we have at our disposal to create something that COULD be even better than the original.

So let's look at the manifesto itself..

The statement at the beginning of the manifesto says "We are uncovering better ways of delivering software by doing it, and helping others do it" That statement alone is very telling. We are uncovering better ways.

Honestly ask yourself.. Are we uncovering better ways?

And what about a few of the values..

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools - How often have you seen this interpreted to mean 'No process, or very little?' How do you enable a focus on the individual and enabling them to interact in this increasingly digital world?
• Working software over comprehensive documentation - I've seen this widely interpreted to mean no documentation, or very little to the point of technical debt accruing which stalls progress.
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation - How many metrics are there around frequency of customer collaboration? How is customer collaboration even measured? This is probably the value that I personally feel we seldom adhere to.
• Responding to change OVER following a plan - Have you encountered people interpreting this to mean people not planning at all, OR on the flip side, responding to change too frequently which can result in issues with context switching and reduce cycle time.

Although the intent of the word 'Over' wasn't supposed to mean 'Instead of', how often have you observed the antipatterns I just mentioned throughout the companies you work with?

But wait.. the principles are surely infallible?!

• Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software - Is the word software here relevant? Would 'Our customers', rather than 'The customer' be a better use of language to reflect that there is often not only one customer.
• Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage - I agree with the sentiment here, but is this the case in practice? How many teams do you know that welcome changing requirements?
• Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale - Relevant from a software standpoint but what about industries where the product isn't software?
• Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project - Depending on how you interpret 'Developers', this could be correct, or potentially reinforce the silos that developers and other team members such as Testers, PO's, Scrum Masters, UX designers aren't all part of the team.
• Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done - Is the word 'Projects' here still relevant given that modern companies are more often product or service orientated? 'Project' has connotations that rightly or wrongly perceived negatively and associated with 'Waterfall' ways of working and the associated stigma therein. Should environment here include psychological safety which is currently perceived to be a key success factor in driving innovation.
• The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation - Is this still true? Perhaps 20 years ago, face to face communication was the norm. However today in this increasingly distributed world, is this still the case? Some of the largest and most innovative companies have gone fully remote, would they suffer loss of competitive advantage if they felt this principle was to be adhered to.
• Working software is the primary measure of progress. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely - Similar to previous points around the use of 'Software' and 'Developers'. Otherwise sustainability for me is absolutely relevant
• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility - can't think how I'd currently change this, if at all.
• Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential - I can't think how I'd currently change this, if at all.
• The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams - I can't think how I'd currently change this, if at all.
• At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly - I agree with the sentiment here but perhaps could include experimentation and making decisions based on data first, instinct second.

Now.. to be clear. I'm not saying the manifesto needs a wholesale change. But perhaps we need to examine the language, tweak it slightly and acknowledge that it COULD be improved.

What do the original signatories say about the state of agile?

Dr Alistair Cockburn - Agile has become overly decorated. Let’s scrape away those decorations for a minute, and get back to the heart of agile.

His views on agile have resulted in him creating his own simplification of the past two decades of practice into 'The Heart of Agile'

Dave Thomas, another of the Agile Manifesto's signatories, says "The word 'agile' has been subverted to the point where it is effectively meaningless, and what passes for an agile community seems to be largely an arena for consultants and vendors to hawk services and products."

What are others saying?

Zach Bonaker in 2015 wrote an article called Agile Cancer: Stop Whining and Cure It, Zach reminds agilists that whining or ignoring the problem rather than trying to resolve the issues is, in itself, anti-agile.

Claire Drumond, a writer for Atlassian says of the manifestos relevance that "After speaking with hundreds of Atlassian customers, internal and external Agile Coaches, enthusiasts and avid practioners, not to mention the inordinate amount of time we spend reading about it on social media, I can say with confidence that the answer is: Yes. The Manifesto is still relevant—perhaps even more now than ever.

So what does this small snippet of voices tell us?

The manifesto was a product of its time and the spirit of it is entirely relevant and remains so. We, the community of agile professionals need to review & potentially refine the manifesto to reflect what we've learned as professionals in the last 20 years. We can improve it.

Thou shalt not question the agile manifesto

How many of you have observed this level of dogmatism from the agile community? How many of you have been guilty of complaining that a fellow practitioner doesn't 'follow' or 'understand' the manifesto?

The manifesto has become an untouchable document, an unquestionable writ. My main concern stems from the fact that there are a lot of agile professionals at the moment lamenting the current state of agile without taking action. Be it scaling frameworks, misunderstanding of the intent of manifesto or otherwise, but we still then point back to the same snapshot in time document which hasn't been updated and expect people to use / coach it correctly. Is this not falling foul of Einsteins definition of insanity through continuing to do the same things over and over, whilst expecting different results?

The manifesto has for all intents and purposes become a holy scripture that the purists will point to as an example of why people less experienced than them are not agile enough.

This honestly disappoints me and let me be open with you, I've been guilty of it too.

Why have we forgotten the 'Individuals and interactions over processes and tools value we hold so dear? Our first thought shouldn't be to complain about someone not understanding the manifesto, but to empathise. Understand. Learn why and offer to help. To take action.

We shouldn't be referring back to old texts and taking them as gospel. An extreme example of this would be the bible - Leviticus 19:19 Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee."

Do any of us not wear mixed fabric garments? We'd all be walking around naked.

Now before I step down from my soap box.

Ask yourselves the following questions honestly

1. Why does the manifesto need to be a historical artifact and not a living and breathing document which reflects what we as agile community have learned since its inception?
2. Are we honestly saying that in 20 years, we haven't uncovered better ways? That the manifesto is perfect? Are we saying that the manifesto only relates to software still? Even though it is now widely being applied within other industries?

If we take the spirit of the manifesto and its principles as it was intended, WE are the self organising teams, WE the community should be committed to regularly reflecting on how the manifesto can be more effective, how it can meet OUR needs and WE should commit refine it accordingly, if it determined that it should be.

As an agile coach, one of the measures of my own success is whether the team or organisation can continue with good habits in my absence. I exist to make myself redundant.

What if the lack of update of the manifesto over these last 20 years has been the same litmus test performed by the creators? What if they are waiting for us to learn, self organise and refine it to reflect the modern times without their interference.

If we take the spirit of the agile manifesto as it was intended, then nothing, even the holy manifesto should be immune from inspection.

What the #AgileManifesto2020 movement isn't;

• This is not an attempt in cancellation culture style to rewrite history. Those who rewrite history are doomed to repeat their mistakes. We should acknowledge and recognise the 2001 manifesto as a historical document. A revolutionary one which was the product of its time.
• This isn't about change for the sake of change.
• I am not here to say that the original pioneers of the manifesto had ill intent. Far from it. I am looking at this through a lens of unconditional positive regard. They created the manifesto and they did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.
• This is also not an attempt to create factions. 2001 manifesto vs 2020 manifesto, 'Old' vs 'New Agile'. There are some who will believe, and they are entitled to their opinion, that the 2001 manifesto is perfect as is. If this version is still bringing them value and meets the needs of their situation, who am I to say they shouldn't be using it?

All I am challenging here is that we practice what we preach as practitioners. We should as a community be regularly reviewing the manifesto to sense check if it is still relevant, OR could be improved. We should be refining it, or at least taking the time to examine IF it needs refinement.

From there, we shouldn't be waiting 20 years to review it again. Let's run an experiment, identify some metrics and use this as input into our next review.

So what next Chris? Where do we go from here?

Quite simply. Let's practice what we preach. Join me in the movement. Sign up at the following link to state your intent to be involved in the #AgileManifesto2020 experiment. I will organise a wholly inclusive event. A community wide retrospective on the agile manifesto and whether or not it needs to be updated.

We will create a community led version of the manifesto which reflects the current situation, knowledge, and skillsets of the community.

It the outcome of this experiment is that the community believes the manifesto should remain as is.. That's ok too. We as a community will have agreed that that's the case and we can truly say that we have maintained the spirit of the manifesto by asking the question.

I will be looking to facilitate an event that enables us to create this together. To give the community a voice, a more diverse one which represents the collective cultural experiences and capabilities we now have. This will be OUR version of the manifesto, that we as practitioners can commit to inspecting and adapting upon regularly.

In this event, we will define our hypothesis. Review the manifesto, consider if it is fit for the purpose for the current business & people context. We will challenge ourselves to consider the manifesto from the lenses of not just those producing outcomes using agile ways of working, but also those who train the manifesto to others. Not just from a single industry and culture such as software in the Western world, but from multiple industries, multiple cultures. To that end, I will actively seek to invite renowned training providers to participate along with the original signatories.

If you don't want to be involved? That's ok. Nobody is forcing you to take action. I hope that you'll be open to seeing how the experiment progresses, that you'll observe the data we captured and ask honest questions of yourself as to whether what we produce will be of any value to you.

Afterword;

I am fully cognizant that my involvement in this movement may make me as many enemies as it does friends. And honestly? I'm ok with that. I would rather challenge the status quo. I would rather ask the difficult questions of myself and of others even if these make us uncomfortable and makes us re-examine some of the core principles we may have lived by for years. If the experiment fails, so be it. I will have learned from the experience. The pursuit of truth is rocky road, but one that is worthwhile.

In doing this experiment, we will have corrected our past mistakes, found our way again and most importantly, identified as a community IF there is a better way of doing things.

agile #agilecoaching #scrum #agilemanifesto2020