February 2001 was a watershed moment for mankind. Or at least, it was a crucial moment in software development. 17 professionals came together in Utah to discuss the dreary state of software development at that time.
They all had been experimenting with alternative ways, far removed from the document-heavy, planned-based approaches that ruled the world back then. Their conversations about what bound them led to the Agile Manifesto.
The impact of the Agile Manifesto has been staggering. It has empowered software developers, helped change organizational cultures and brought us working software early and continuously.
But it didn’t stop at the software. Nowadays, Agile principles and values are everywhere. Especially in knowledge work areas. Examples are Agile product management, Agile HR, Agile in education, and Agile in healthcare.
Despite the fact that Agile is already 20+ years old, there’s still much room for growth. It reminds me of how the same happened with Lean manufacturing, starting in the 50s in Japan and taking the world by storm decades later.
Agile started as a brainchild of the creators of lightweight frameworks like XP, DSDM, Adaptive Software Development, Crystal, Feature-Driven Development, Pragmatic Programming, and Scrum. Some of these approaches have grown massively since then. Others have faded into the background.
The Agile Manifesto has a great introduction line, namely:
“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.” - Agile Manifesto
And uncover we did. Many new approaches and ideas spawned. Some of them are very successful these days. Examples of these are Lean Startup, Agile Product Management and SAFe.
And with the creation of all these new approaches and ideas came the Agile infighting. In the early 2000’s we had fans for specific approaches who weren’t too enthusiastic about other approaches. This is totally fine, obviously. You may have a preference for XP over Scrum for all kinds of reasons. Or the other way around.
It is also good to have constructive debates. After all, feedback is an important way towards improvements. This is how the Scrum framework continues to evolve. Scrum in 2023 is vastly different from Scrum 2001, although the core concepts remained the same. The same applies to SAFe.
Some of us may still be unhappy with Scrum and/or SAFe in the current state. A healthy debate can help them evolve.
But sadly things have become particularly nasty. These days, people typically are part of a camp. I think many believe I’m in the Scrum camp, as co-creator of
. Being part of one camp apparently means you distrust other camps. Instead of talking and discussing, we see ridicule and contempt. This results in defensiveness and even more hostility.But there’s more. When you’re deemed to be from a certain camp, you are not supposed to be mild about another camp. Because that is betrayal. I see this a lot on LinkedIn these days. The best way to get likes is to either state the obvious in your echo chamber or to burn someone from the other camp to the ground. Constructive discussions are rare.
I have personal experiences. When I stated that I like parts of SAFe (and why), I got called out by the Scrum camp. When I suggested changes to SAFe (to have chances at better value creation), I got a backslash from SAFe adepts. And when I stated don’t like certain aspects of Scrum (and why, including alternatives), I was told I was betraying Scrum.
I firmly believe that all this hate only harms Agile as a whole. And I also am sure that when we work together we can really help each other and learn from each other.
So, let's find common ground instead! Just like the founders of the Agile Manifesto all those years ago! They could have decided to form their own camps and battle each other. Instead, they came together to highlight their common ground and create a historic document, the Agile Manifesto.
whoop. Love it