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I love that video! It’s an expression of what lot’s of people think Agile is about. To speak freely, there are lot’s of people who have no clue that working with Scrum or Kanban has nothing to do with being Agile. In addition, doing a daily meeting has nothing to do with Scrum!
Agile is a buzzword
First, let’s have a look at the term Agile. Most common, Agile is used as a generic term for Agile practices for Software Development like Scrum, Kanban, TDD or XP to name some of the most popular. Some people also include Lean. In my opinion, this is not correct as I understand Lean as a term which coexists as an equivalent to the term Agile, or vice versa, even if Lean concentrates more on management and production. But I don’t want to mix up Lean and Agile, even if they have some common basics.
What I think is important is to know that Agile is much more than just a collection of practices, values and principles for Software Development – in my opinion!
If you have a look at the Agile Manifesto or the 12 Agile Principles, you will recognize that Agile is primary used in the context of Software Development. It was created in 2001. Today, 11 years later, the term Agile has developed further.
Agile evolution
Even if most people stille use ‘Agile’ in the context of Software Development, for me it has evolved that ‘Agile’ is much more than just practices, values and principles’ for Software Development. In my opinion, Agile is a MindSet, a worldly wisdom, a philosophy and a way of living a passionate, fulfilled and valuable life!
A base of Agile, as well as for Lean, is the core of the inspect&adapt mechanism and the continuous improvement approach. And this is exactly the point why I think that Agile is a way of living and a philosophy. If you start to map and adapt the Agile Manifesto and the Agile Principles to your own live, perhaps by starting to find a Coach who can help you by achieving this approach if you’re not Agile by nature, you will discover that you should follow your passion and use your natural talents for striving for a fulfilled and valuable life!
Stop doing Agile and start being Agile!
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If you like the video from the beginning, you will like this as well! =;-)
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And if you want to do Agile Software Development, and know why, be careful to talk to the right recruiters:
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Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!
vinylbaustein 
Jan 23, 2012 @ 01:13:58
Hi Thorsten,
You’re saying that Agile is a buzzword…
How about the theory that Agile is Snake Oil (read here: http://www.projectmanagementquestions.com/6695/is-agile-snake-oil ).
Jan 23, 2012 @ 20:55:34
Hi MaplePM,
thanks for your comment and the link. I’ve read it and to be honest, I’m not sure if you really get it what Agile is about?
I don’t want to comment on all your ‘facts’ about Agile as I think they are written from a one-way perspective and I don’t think that I can ‘open’ your eyes with some words in a comment.
I just want to say that Agile is about people, about ‘pull’ against ‘push’, about self-organizing teams, visualizing work, trust and intrinsic motivation. It’s about striving for excellence. Agile is not a silver bullet, absolutely not! But being Agile means to be brutally honest and open-minded. Agile creates transparency – it does not solve problems, it just makes them visible so that every single person is able to find out how to deal with challenges. Agile is the opposite of command & control…
It’s true that for a lot of people Agile is a vague term. As I’ve written in my article, Agile is a MindSet. And under the ‘umbrella’ of Agile you’ll find frameworks like Scrum, Kanban etc. But to understand and work with these frameworks you don’t have to pay any consultants or make a certification! Even if a lot of people sell such courses…
So, my answer to your question is no, Agile is not Snake oil as Agile itself is not a product!
If you want to have a look at a company which works with Scrum and Agile principles and has nothing to do with software development, have a look at http://www.wikispeed.com – these awesome guys build a fuel efficiency car using Agile frameworks and have adapted the Agile MindSet to themselves…
Best regards from cologne,
Thorsten
p.s. here is a link to an article from Tobias Mayer, could be interesting for you… http://agileanarchy.tumblr.com/post/16348539241/project-management-a-malady
Feb 25, 2012 @ 17:32:11
+1
Jan 22, 2012 @ 11:11:54
+1