Agile: How Common Sense Has Become a Brand
More than 20 years later, “agile” is still a misinterpreted buzzword, so clearly defined in the Agile Manifesto, so used as an empty word
I need your help.
Please take a look at LinkedIn. There are plenty of posts on why “agile” doesn’t work and tons of comments under those posts. After 20 years, we are still at the starting point. Weird.
Back to the Agile Manifesto, back to origins. That’s where I need your help. Please read it and tell me: what’s not clear? It’s a small set of wonderfully stated truths, like “when the sun rises, the world lights up.” Would you say that dawn does not work? I don’t think so.
The truth is that the Agile Manifesto is common sense. It unveils that
- People are the core of building products.
- Customers need solutions, not instructions.
- Customers are the center.
- Things change.
Put all together, that’s a powerful picture, but it’s nothing more than common sense nowadays.
Agile as a brand
Then, there is the brand side. With tons of posts on why “agile” doesn’t work, there are just as many posts by “agile” coaches pledging knowledge and wisdom.
Sure, teachers and coaches are worth it. Yet, I expect as many agile coaches as project and product management coaches. In the end, that’s the topic.
“Agile” is an excellent synthesis of the core of project management when it comes to being — eventually! — customer-centric. I love it. Nevertheless, once that is understood, let’s go ahead.
Is project management less challenging to learn than “agile”? And is product management something other than “agile”? Do Peter Druker and Jeff Sutherland face different subject matters?
As far as you don’t treat “agile” as a brand (and as a trend), the answer is negative.
A brand needs to distinguish itself from others. So, “agile” needs to state its different nature compared to project management. That’s the “agile” business for coaches and self-declared agile companies.
If “waterfall” is a shame even when it’s the proven most convenient approach, then “agile” becomes a brand. And a trend. Like the Rolex that every successful man must wear.
Agile as common sense
Common sense is only evident once it becomes common sense. Before that, it’s something blurred.
“Agile” puts people and customers at the center of the focus. Business-wise, that’s obvious. That’s why I say that “agile” is common sense. Before that, processes were the focus. A silly focus once understood that customers pay for value, not processes.
And that’s why the Scrum Guide says that
Scrum is simple.
Simple to define, extremely tough to put into practice. Like common sense. In fact, following the Cambridge Dictionary, common sense is:
the basic level of practical knowledge and judgment that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way.
The key reason why common sense is challenging is that it’s a faithful representation of life, and life is tough to live reasonably and safely.
Yet, all that does not justify deeming challenges as if they were brands, just because where there’s a challenge, there’s a market to target.
Conclusions
Brands aim to sell. On the other hand, common sense is for something other than sales. So, “agile” is not a brand. Yet, it behaves as if it was a brand because there’s a need for “agility” in the business of software and far beyond it.
I started this post asking for help. I confirm: I need your help understanding what I’m missing.
Even assuming that the Agile Manifesto was disruptive due to its consequences, it was like that ten years ago. No longer, now.
What’s “agile” and why it’s relevant is proven just as the sea is necessary for a ship to float. Could the ships’ need for the ocean be a brand?
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