What IS Agile? A Useless Theoretical Question or Necessary Clarity for Success?

Is there a clear definition of what Agile is? I do not think so - I have looked for and have not found any!

setandbma.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/what-is-the-...

When firms like Accenture, et al., starting selling Agile as the front end for their big processes, you know Agile has died an undignified death. And it's happened. Just like the expression Object Oriented, or UML got taken over by hyperbole (style over substance), so has Agile succumbed to deadly onslaught of the big companies, too few people who actually understand/utilize the principles, and referring to projects as "agile" that are little more than outright hacking.

Alas, poor Agile, we knew thee well, but tis a far, far better place thou hast departed for.

But I digress...

Some say agile has died or failed or devolved into a meaningless buzzword. Here's another view: This is what success looks like. When an innovation crosses the chasm, it ceases to be an innovation. Some of its ideas and practices get folded into the preexisting background. Some, not all, and not all in the same way or to the same extent. The status quo changes, and that's the definition of success for the innovation; but the world doesn't transform into a pristine model of the innovation as it was envisioned by its creators.

Think back on other innovations in the IT field over the years. Do you see a pattern? I think I see one. IMHO this year is the right time to reconsider agile. What effect has the movement had? Where are we now? In what direction should we go next? If the word "agile" is worn out, do we need another word around which people can rally, if they are interested in continuing to pursue organizational improvement beyond the new status quo? Those who choose not to think through these issues may find themselves selling solutions to yesterday's problems.

What's "great" to, is what remains of agile in big companies which like to bathe in the positive light it casts on them, but don't want to deal with aspects intrinsic to the method. "Oh yes, we're doing it agile. We start coding right after you give me the final estimates and the finished requirements document".

Hello-ho, anybody at home? Agile does work, in a conducive environment, with the right people, right mind set, and by accepting that you can't have a final estimate at the beginning, and fixed priorities (you can't ever anyways, but agile is admitting that and set out to address these issues).

I think the big companies are the most interested in the success of software methodologies / frameworks. Why would they let the romantic idea of Agile die?
The car industry didn't destroy the automobile idea. The big food companies didn't destroy the home food idea. Unlike, They help the idea to survive and to evolve in the real-world business.

My 2 cents.

Agile is what your tool vendor tells you it is!

read more...
www.jroller.com/sebastianKuebeck/entry/the_othe...

...as Dave said congratulations we've succeeded. Large organizations want part of the success (i.e. the business), others think that they know how to adapt it to fit their own needs. We can't wrest away their definition of Agile from them, we're unlikely to get Gartner and Forrester to see common sense, but that doesn't mean the battle isn't worth fighting. We can fight the nonsense on InfoQ, we can give our clients some guiding principles. Because of articles like the one's Amr describes I now spend up to two hours at the beginning of every class covering underlying, core principles so people will know when something is wrong.

Cheers
Mark Levison
Agile Pain Relief Consulting

What's "great" to, is what remains of agile in big companies which like to bathe in the positive light it casts on them, but don't want to deal with aspects intrinsic to the method. "Oh yes, we're doing it agile. We start coding right after you give me the final estimates and the finished requirements document".

Hello-ho, anybody at home? Agile does work, in a conducive environment, with the right people, right mind set, and by accepting that you can't have a final estimate at the beginning, and fixed priorities (you can't ever anyways, but agile is admitting that and set out to address these issues).