Agile is a Pyramid Scheme
Always read past the headline
If it isn’t already, Agile, if applied without considering alternative options, is in danger of becoming nothing more than a Pyramid Scheme.
If you look at any business based, social media platform, you will regularly find Agile coaches congratulating other people on becoming certified in Agile. Promoting Agile certification providers in the process.
At events run by Agile people, for other Agile people, there will be talk after talk aimed at enhancing Agile in the Agile workplace.
But what if it’s not? What if the workplace isn’t Agile, or even agile? What if in 2024, people still work in ways that frustrate, compound and simply fly in the face of coaching, qualifications and all round sharing of likeminded views.
What if, there are no more people to come in at that bottom of the pyramid?
But Chris, I hear you ask. Isn’t it your job to promote Agile ways of working?
No. Not really. My job is to deliver value to a client in whichever way we can, with successful outcomes at the heart of everything we do. In spaces where we don’t always have the chance to fail. In settings where folk are not always fully motivated and, more often than not, we build the whole thing before any of it sees the light of day.
Every gig is set up with the knowledge, experience and people who could deliver in a way that aligns with principles and manifestos, but then – my job, that of Delivery Lead or Manager – isn’t even in the Agile team roles. Why is that? Because sometimes and hear me out as this might not be pretty, teams occasionally need to be told to do things.
GASP!
We always want our teams to be autonomous, but there are occasions where they can’t fully self-organise, because they need something to happen, somewhere else in the business. Which dictates what they do.
I could go on about a fixed scope that cannot change due to sign off process with businesspeople (what a horrid phrase) that have little to no availability, but I think you get the point I am making. If you don’t, please sign up for my six week, fully accredited intensive course on JFDI – The Force We Reckon With.
So what happens in its place? People meet, we agree what work needs to be done and we just crack on. Which is what I have done in project and delivery roles for close on 30 years now.
Sure I once passed an Agile exam, and I am also sure I can quote (read) the manifesto while stood on one leg and a hand, held somewhere near my heart. But it has rarely ever been the default way of working.
Like I said. We talk, we have the conversation around methodology, and we often just leave it there.
For Agile to work, it needs a well cultivated environment – of outcomes, decision makers and skills. We can grow a lot of those, but if a clinician needs to sign off a specification before it can be developed, and another has to approve the development before it can be deployed – you have your big bang, and nothing is going to change that.
There will be some folk reading this who will say “It’s the exact same in cybersecurity!” – or every other form of industry built up around people, ideas and ultimately, meet ups and qualifications. But this is a Delivery newsletter, and we don’t know anything about you other lot.
So what do we need to do? Well, I guess we either need to accept it (unless I am the only one thinking this way?) and figure out an alternative approach to deploying Agile in a great number of workplaces where it isn’t a recognised way of working, currently.
Or we can just keep building up the number of people with qualifications, with no opportunities to fully utilise them. Whichever is easiest*, I guess.
(* Never, ever take the easy option)
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