Rick Tonoli

Are you really Agile?

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by

Rick Tonoli
in

I found this interesting article by James Shore:The Decline and Fall of Agile which essentially talks along the subject of people claiming to be “agile” but are not really and having this potentially destroying the true “agile” drive. People should be careful that they don’t just grab at buzzwords and ideas without realizing what they’re getting in to, especially with Scrum:

“But because Scrum works in short cycles and doesn’t include any engineering practices, it’s very easy for teams using Scrum to throw out design. Up-front design doesn’t work when you’re using short cycles, and Scrum doesn’t provide a replacement. Without continuous, incremental design, Scrum teams quickly dig themselves a gigantic hole of technical debt”

Read the full article, it was an eye-opener for me, and be careful, Scrum alone does NOT make you fully agile, it’s only a small step towards agility.

Comments

3 responses to “Are you really Agile?”

  1. Is Agile (= Scrum) Failing? « Scrum 4 You

    […] 2 December , 2008 · No Comments A participant of of my last class in South Africa wrote in his blog: Read the full article (James Shore:The Decline and Fall of Agile), it was an eye-opener for me, and be careful, Scrum alone does NOT make you fully agile, it’s only a small step towards agility. Rick Tonoli […]

  2. Jurgen Appelo Avatar
    Jurgen Appelo

    I wrote my own reply to all agilists who are preaching that certain agile practices are required to be called ‘agile’:

    The Decline and Fall of Agilists
    http://www.noop.nl/2009/02/the-decline-and-fall-of-agilists.html

  3. Rick Tonoli Avatar
    Rick Tonoli

    I liked your article; personally I think some people need to go back and read the agile manifesto again, especially the part about “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”.

    For me it feels like there’s almost a movement of “purists” out there who believe there is only one way to be “agile” (and, of course, that sentence itself doesn’t make sense). Instead of focusing on delivering, there seems to be a fixation on the “how to deliver”.

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