Most organisations I have come across that are attempting to adopt Agile are generally looking for improvement. That improvement could be in the way that they deliver, how quickly they deliver, improving on existing processes, or providing a way which will help staff feel motivated about what they are building. All are worthy aspirations - why not desire to become better?
However, a darker side emerges when management see Agile as doing “more with more” or delivering software as quickly as possible (a damn the torpedoes approach if you will). This has potentially serious consequences for the people involved.
I once worked on a large project that was developing in a sequential way for a while and had not been delivering. New program management came in and decided that a project reset was in order with Agile development being the approach of choice. The problem was that the teams had not been given any Agile training of any sort, the project managers did not understand Agile, and perhaps, most concerning, Agile was seen as a way to beat the teams into working faster and harder. Throughout this project, a number of very knowledgeable people left due to the false expectations management had of Agile, and the resulting burnout it caused the project team.
For this project, Agile became about practices such as stand-ups as opposed to developing people, communication, and collaboration. If Agile development was a continuum with ‘the illusion of Agile’ (aka bad) at one end and ‘we are Agile and I am Agile’ at the other end (aka good) then this project was at the illusion end.
This darker side of Agile is shown in the misunderstanding of what Agile is, what it can deliver and what it does not do well. It looks for the silver bullet to magically create software that seems to work. The darker side is concerned more with doing it fast now (and I do not care how well it is done). It looks to manage and control people and work and does not concern itself with leadership and innovation. It cares less about its language and what things mean, and simply assumes everyone understands what is going on. The darker side of Agile creates an illusion and the illusion becomes the project's reality.
Agile is not perfect - and it isn’t applicable it all contexts, but it does work. Done well, Agile can bring people together and empower them to find solutions to problems that are as lightweight as practical and as possible. This means that the solution to problem-solving leans more towards being creative and innovative without the fear of failure and recrimination.
Gone are the days when applying a poorly thought out manufacturing model to an essentially creative process was considered a good idea. In the software development world, creativity and innovation to solve problems would mostly likely provide better value than forcing development through coercion.
To truly embrace Agile, requires a shift in mindset, and in culture, for its benefits to be fully realised. The end game is that whilst not perfect (no model is), Agile done well offers opportunity and advantages over Agile that pretends to do so. It’s a learning game and those who do Agile well have learned, trained, experienced, tried and realised that there are better, more humanistic ways of developing software.
Posted by Brian Osman
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