Agile Industrial Complex
The good news is the agile industrial complex is dying, albeit slowly.
The bad news is there are still a cadre of self-proclaimed agile coaches fleecing clueless orgs with shopwarn prescriptions. The agile industrial complex preys on old school IT orgs. Coaches are hired by deer-in-the-headlights managers.
Deer-in-the-headlights managers, and zombified reports, are typically sysadmins, computer science grads, or troubleshooters promoted from the help desk.
Most are well-meaning but lack experience developing software products.
The root problem is rarely a lack of process and nearly always a dearth of experienced programming, platform ops, and production talent.
The tenets of the agile manifesto have aged well. They’re pretty much beyond reproach.
A seasoned software developer embodies the spirit of the manifesto, but has little need or occasion to codify it into prescriptive rules.
Every org and every product has diverse challenges. While patterns emerge, the path forward is provisional. Prescriptions become incumbrances.
If your development team is not pushing back on — or at least questioning the value of — the raft of goofball and gratuitous ceremonies imposed by the agile industrial complex (i.e., story pointing, backlog grooming, daily standup), you don’t have the horses to successfully produce software.
