The Tao of Agile

A lot of people talk about Scrum now, or Agile. The thinking is so revolutionary compares with the conventional Product Development / Project Management approach. It’s now more than 2 decades since the world knew about Agile, and it’s still a long way to go to put it in practice.

The Birth of Agile Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto was born in Snowbird, Utah, a ski resort with no apparent connection to software revolution or technological innovation. Frustrated by the unreasonable bureaucratic processes and paperwork in software development, seventeen representatives from different fields of software engineering gathered together (on vacation) to discuss the future of software development. After several days of discussion and debate, they jointly wrote the “Manifesto for Agile Software Development”.

What Needs to Be Changed

The manifesto is in responds of the struggles and frustration faced by the development team:

• In complex creative work, the role of project managers can hinder productivity. Instead of mobilizing everyone’s intelligence to better solve problems, the project managers rigidly stick with the project plan which constraints the creativity and wisdom of the team.
• As software becomes more complex, business pace accelerates and user complexity continues to increase, it is impossible to plan everything in advance.
• A huge amount of time and effort is spent on long-winded procedure manual / documentations that ended up in the warehouses. Product was never delivered after many requirement changes and iterations.

The Agile Manifesto conveys four values that are different from traditional software development. It emphasizes flexibility (able to respond to changing user requirement, technology and market conditions) instead of sticking to a set plan; it focuses on collaborating with customers instead of being on the other end of a negotiation table; It believes that effort should be spent on delivering a solution than lost in excessive documentations; and creativities and high quality comes from motivated human interactions instead of some powerful development tools or well-defined process.

The Reality

The practical application of Scrum / Agile proves to be quite challenging. This is because processes and tools are relatively easy to implement as compared to fostering collaborations among team members. Moreover, there exists a constant struggle between maintaining long term plans aligned with business goals set by executives who desire control, versus being able to react promptly to changing circumstances. Improper execution of Agile approaches could also result in chaos making it even more imperative for teams to focus on continuous improvement through inspect and adapt. Finally, collaboration with customers requires trust and honesty, which may not necessarily exist in business environments.

Methodology that focuses on individuality and interaction will inevitably lead to various interpretation and complication. Companies end up DOING Agile instead of BEING Agile, without embracing the teachings of the Agile Manifesto. It can take years and lot more commitment for a complete mindset transformation, before that day, organizations implementing Scrum processes is doing Agile in name only. True Agile Practitioners strive to embody the Agile values in all aspects of their work, and put those core values and principles in to everyday practices.