Wanna hear my contribution to the agile is dead debate? I call it the David Foster Wallace argument.
Before I continue, I should acknowledge that, to the best of my knowledge, David Foster Wallace expressed no opinion about the agile manifesto or agile practices.
He did, however, tell this story in his famous commencement address… This Is Water David Foster Wallace Commencement Speech
There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”
Agile is water. It’s everywhere now, it’s real and essential, and hidden in plain sight all around us.
Things like delivering iteratively and experimentally or prioritizing the collaboration between people over processes and tools are now understood and accepted, if often poorly implemented.
Prioritizing the early release of a product, both for early value and accelerated learning, is something most are trying to do, even if they struggle with the how.
Nobody is suggesting we go back to the old ways of working. The agile mindset has permeated the culture, even if we still struggle to find the practices that will work in our particular context.
People’s frustration with dogmatic and overly process-focused implementations isn’t the death knell for agile; it’s a signal for where we go next. Back to a belief in principles and the need to empower organizations and teams to find the practices that will work for them while staying true to the mindset we want to embed.
Agile isn’t dead, it’s everywhere.