{"id":132,"date":"2022-09-20T02:33:17","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T02:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/?p=132"},"modified":"2022-09-20T02:33:21","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T02:33:21","slug":"criticism-of-agile-methodology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/?p=132","title":{"rendered":"Criticism of Agile Methodology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pragmatic-pm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Criticism-1.jpg?resize=750%2C500&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pragmatic-pm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Criticism-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pragmatic-pm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Criticism-1-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pragmatic-pm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Criticism-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pragmatic-pm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Criticism-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pragmatic-pm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Criticism-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pragmatic-pm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Criticism-1-scaled.jpg?resize=360%2C240&amp;ssl=1 360w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pragmatic-pm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Criticism-1-scaled.jpg?w=2250&amp;ssl=1 2250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><figcaption>Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@markuswinkler\">Markus Winkler<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/\">Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Criticisms of Agile methodology abound and are perhaps nearly as numerous as its praises. \u00a0I\u2019ve taken issues with a number of its elements in prior posts.\u00a0 Perhaps most surprising is that the original signers of the Agile Manifesto have also seen issues with the practice, especially in how it has been interpreted by others.\u00a0 Here are a few that resonate with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.infoq.com\/articles\/agile-teenage-crisis\">Agile&#8217;s Teenage Crisis?<\/a> by Philippe Kruchten in 2011 describes debate at a 10<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary gathering of the Agile founders, identifying a list of 20 issues they found with the state of Agile at the time, which he called \u201celephants in the room.\u201d&nbsp; He concluded:<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>The agile movement is in some ways a bit like a teenager: very self-conscious, checking constantly its appearance in a mirror, accepting few criticisms, only interested in being with its peers, rejecting <em>en bloc<\/em> all wisdom from the past, just because it is from the past, adopting fads and new jargon, at times cocky and arrogant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/toolshed.com\/2015\/05\/the-failure-of-agile.html\">The &#8220;Failure&#8221; of Agile<\/a> by Andy Hunt in 2015 begins:<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>The word \u201cagile\u201d has become sloganized; meaningless at best, jingoist at worst. We have large swaths of people doing \u201cflaccid agile,\u201d a half-hearted attempt at following a few select software development practices, poorly. We have scads of vocal agile zealots\u2014as per the definition that a zealot is one who redoubles their effort after they\u2019ve forgotten their aim.<\/p><p>And worst of all, agile methods themselves have not been agile. Now there\u2018s an irony for you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>And following Andy\u2019s last point, <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@mikebeedle\/the-agile-movement-is-not-very-agile-4898a9adb684\">The Agile Movement&#8230; Is NOT very Agile!!<\/a> By Mike Beedle in 2017:<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>It would appear to some, that we, the Agilistas, are \u201ctoo proud\u201d to take criticism, or afraid of \u201cthe mirror\u201d \u2026 and improve. Are we suffering from the very same syndrome that those that we so-blatantly criticize for \u201cnot changing\u201d fast enough?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>He goes on to criticize Agile transformations, frameworks, coaches, trainers, leaders, developers, and implementations \u2013 all as being not Agile, using traditional management techniques, slow communications methods, and collaborating poorly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Key themes from these critiques include topics about which I have written as well including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Applicability (<a href=\"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/?p=69\">Scrum applicability by project characteristics<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/?p=117\">Scrum applicability by project characteristics \u2013 Take 2<\/a>)<\/li><li>Undisciplined practice (<a href=\"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/?p=59\">Pro forma rituals vs. deep understanding<\/a>), and<\/li><li>Elitism (<a href=\"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/?p=85\">The Lake Wobegon Assumption in Agile<\/a>)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A pragmatic approach to Agile, <a href=\"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/?p=21\">focused on its purpose and understanding how the tools achieve that purpose,<\/a> seems the most likely way to avoid the burden of these criticisms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Criticisms of Agile methodology abound and are perhaps nearly as numerous as its praises. \u00a0I\u2019ve taken issues with a number of its elements in prior posts.\u00a0 Perhaps most surprising is that the original signers of the Agile Manifesto have also seen issues with the practice, especially in how it has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,21,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agile-philosophy","category-criticism","category-underlying-assumptions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pragmatic-pm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Criticism-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137,"href":"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pragmatic-pm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}