The road to Agile's destruction is currently being paved with good technical intentions.

Agile is all about getting better.  It is all about getting our business folks, our managers, and our techies singing from the same hymn sheet.  It is all about making our businesses more money.  It's about making promises we can keep - promises that thrill our customers, thrill our staff and thrill our bosses.  It is all about making software development work something to be proud off.

The good news is that we're nearly there - Agile is making the world a better place in more and more organisations, for more and more people.

<rant on>

The bad news is that I think we are about to fuck it all up because (according to my jaded view of the world) we - the agile community - are focusing on the wrong things.  We are focusing on optimising our technical skills (the bits we are naturally good at), but we are ignoring the skills we really need to foster within our community.  What are these skills?  I'd like to call them marketing and sales skills, but I think they'll be better received if I call them "influencing" skills.  We need to get better at helping others to understand agile and how it helps them rather than blaming "them" for being idiots for not getting it.  We need to get better at understanding "their" needs and concerns so that we can adapt our practices and theirs to help "them" get better.  In short: we have to figure out how to optimise the whole, not just the techie side of software development.

I'm now convinced that - if we don't do something about it - the road to agile's destruction is currently being paved with good technical intentions.

You might have guessed, by now, that I am pissed off.  Perhaps it's just because I'm turning 40 in a year and a half and I'm turning into a grumpy old man.

But I am genuinely concerned.

I was at xpday in London last week. It was a wonderful conference with many excellent sessions.  The organisers did a fantastic job.  It was nice to catch up with some old friends too and I made several new friends.  It was my 4th year presenting, it was my best xpday conference and it was one of the most enjoyable 2 days I've had this year.

But I left feeling angry and disappointed.

Why?  I'm now convinced that - if we don't do something about it - the road to agile's destruction is currently being paved with good technical intentions.

Here're some examples of what I mean:

• I keep hearing people say things like "it's not true agile" when I think what what they really honestly mean is that "it's not Extreme Programming like I read about in a book".  The people are judging behaviours according to a standard, rather than judging outcomes.  The outcome should be "we are all getting better".
• I heard, several times, people referring to Scrum as "Scum" and calling Ken Schwaber, umm, "names" because they think Scrum is too prescriptive.  Perhaps it is too prescriptive for them, perhaps their are commercial motivations even, but when I hear these same people talking about "people over processes", I wonder if they could find a nicer and more honest way of expressing their opinions.  FWIW: I like scrum.  I learnt more from Ken Schwaber at his 2 day AgileScotland scrum course in 2004, than I learnt in my entire MBA.  I don't do scrum, but I'd be happy to recommend it to anyone adopting agile.
• A common variation I hear from younger programmers (many of whom I suspect have been shafted (often unintentionally) by their current or past managers) is that "you don't need managers if you're doing agile properly".  What I hear - as a nearer-forty-something is that they don't yet have the influencing skills necessary to help their managers understand why their concerns are important (I know I didn't when I was a twenty-something).  They're also not yet experienced enough to recognise that their manager is probably trying to genuinely do the best he or she can, but is stuck within a system that creates conflict.
• I snuck out of one xpday session because the first 5 minutes nearly broke my wee heart (btw: I've seen a number of positive reviews of this session from other xpday bloggers so don't forget this is just my opinion).  The guys who presented the session obviously had very good intentions and had put a lot of effort into preparing the session but their message seemed to be that we were compromising our agility (by doing "corporate agile " as, I think, they put it) and they suggested that we go back to our jobs and demand better.  I really hope no one went back and demanded an end to compromise because they may well have demanded themselves out of a job or a bonus or a promotion. 

They key to removing technical compromise isn't demanding an end to it, but by having a nice, genuine conversation with the stake holders who you feel are compromising your agility and share your concerns.  But then listen to their concerns and between the two of you ... figure something out that helps both of you win.

</rant>

The day after xpday I (and Andy Pols) visited a good, successful, small software-development company, which was at risk of going broke because the technical team were so focused on doing an excellent technical job that they were sacrificing (what they called) "invoicability".  I hope they are getting better now.  They were a nice bunch of people all trying to do the best job they can.  It's just that they were working at odds with each other.  We figured out a few small changes which should resolve the conflict.  I really hope that they can make them stick.

I want to finish this rant by returning to where I started.  Agile is about getting better.  It's not about being perfect because perfect is impossible.  You don't get better by blaming others for being idiots.  You get better by figuring out how to winners out of everyone.

Comments

[Jim Bullock]

Hi Clarke.

Well, this isn't news. What you describe has been part of the "Agile" story for something over 5 years that I know of. Welcome to my frustration. This is exactly why I didn't sign the agile manifesto when asked, and did sign "I care about software."

On the plus side, the new board & etc. of the Agile conference is making some space for less zealotry. I guess I'm saying if I can find ways to stay engaged, for example with you, you can also.

FWIW, I'm talking with a few "Agilists" I respect about submitting a talk to the curmudgeon's track next year - working title: "Constituencies & Concerns, Reactions & Aspirations." That covers a lot of what you are referring to, I suspect.

Meanwhile, hang in there.

[Brian Marick]

I think it's worse than you do. *Not only* are the technologists retreating from the human, the humanists are retreating from the technologists. I think that early Agile did a commendable job of building networks that joined and reinforced each. Limited and inadequate, of course, but everything always is. We could have pushed that style of thinking forward. Instead we have fallen right back into the old "two cultures" technologist/managerialist divide.

More here: http://www.exampler.com/blog/2007/12/09/latour-5-disliking-the-divide

[Steve Freeman]

It's a shame you snuck out of that session because the early statements were intended to be provocative. As it happens, the organisers are currently doing quiet well on their current project, attracting the (good) attention of some very senior people because they're actually delivering valuable stuff -- because they didn't allow themselves to get sucked into the existing corporate tar-pit.

I've also seen companies (small and large) where not paying enough attention to doing things right is now costing them real money because they can't make enough changes to the product.

As Brian says, we both lose when one side dominates.