Has Agile Lost Its Meaning?

[Tenille _ Easy Agile]

Hey there Community 👋

I’ve been part of the Atlassian Community for a few years now and I’ve seen a lot of conversations about ‘Agile’ and how agile practices have changed over the years. Sometimes the fatigue of just trying to get the job done is entirely real; someone telling you that you aren’t doing it right can be the proverbial last straw.

So I’m wondering, has the focus on process gotten in the way of teams realising the benefits and given agile a bad name? 

Let me be clear in saying that I don’t think the core idea of agile is the problem. I do think rigid and prescriptive practices are a problem. I do think ‘we do the ceremonies’ agile is a big problem (and not agile). And I do think that scaling agile is really hard.

What I’m wondering is has all that gone too far for people to recognise that there is good intent at the heart of agile practices, and is even the mention of ‘agile practices’ enough to make the eyes of a dev team glaze over?

I’d like to know what you’re seeing from the people you work with. Is there a kind of quiet resignation that things can’t change or improve? Has agile started to feel like another process layer instead of the mindset shift it was meant to be? Please tell me if I’ve just been spending too much time on r/agile 😆

[Frode Nilsen]

Good questions.

I think you partially answered it yourself "People and interactions over processes and tools" :)

But at the same time, that lets you get away with not actually fixing your existing processes.

As I see it the main problem is that developers get swamped with new tasks and at the same time being required to estimate all these unknowns. To handle that you have to know some Queueing theory, and fix the upstream problems.

The Goal: A Business Graphic Novel is a nice summary of the issues, or you can read the real "stuff" The Goal and Theory of Constraints by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. Or the popular version, The Phoenix Project.

My point is, someone really has to work with changing things or else there won't be any change ...

[chad_leblanc]

I agree with @Frode Nilsen - whether its from lack of understanding of the overall issues, or the constant bombardment of new items, teams are getting over worked and burned out.

I found this to be the case in my department not to long ago and now I am the sole intake person for a team of 6 - it's harder and harder for the business at hand to understand the word "no" and then I am the bad guy, having to tell the dev teams they need to take more on.

There needs to be a better way of breaking through the ice, because change is unavoidable, but it's also manageable...

[Tenille _ Easy Agile]

And change is hard. It's easier to see that something is broken than it is to know how to fix it. Servant-oriented leadership is needed to see the system clearly and sort out the upstream issues. 

I wasn't thinking about Theory of Constraints, thanks for bringing it up. 

[Frode Nilsen]

Servant-oriented leadership is needed to see the system clearly and sort out the upstream issues. 

Well, actually not. 

When "living" Agile it is the team setting the rules and the bar. Push back.

Of course the organization needs leadership to create flow throughout, but the Agile team should have the means and authority to adjust (almost) anything that inflict their agility.

I think this is the greatest challenge for teams converting to an Agile mindset. And some individuals don't even want to make the shift from servant to autonomy - it is just work paying the bill.

Bottom line - the team needs training and guidance to get in "the zone".