What's our new problem statement?
Let's not "reimagine agile" until we know, ok?
Personally, I’m tired of apologizing to software developers for somebody else’s crappy application of agile. I joined this community with a deeply held commitment to help make the world safe for them.
If the original problem statement driving agile was "How do we build software in a way that's good for shareholders, customers, and teams?" then what is the problem statement now?
We’re in a new river now, 23 years after the agile manifesto was created. Culture is different, the technical aspects of software are evolving rapidly, concepts that were once theoretical are now mainstream, the size of the software community vastly larger, and the pace of change is increasing.
It's pretty safe to say that most corporate systems have never actually cared about the original problem statement in its entirety. At a minimum, it's not top of mind. At worst, lip-service is paid to “shareholders, customers AND teams” in way that encourages dishonesty and creates low-trust, even abusive environments.
This is one of the reasons why so many attempts to implement agile have produced so much pain — the lack of alignment on core goals brings out the very worst in human nature. Manipulation, politics, opportunism, domination, silencing, aggression, jockeying for control. And that’s just the people who call themselves agilists (ok, forgive the dark joke. But I’m kind of serious.)
Personally, I’m tired of apologizing to software developers for somebody else’s crappy application of agile. I joined this community with a deeply held commitment to help make the world safe for them.
The vast majority of software is produced in corporate environments. If we accept that corporations have different goals than those we have held dear for 23 years, where do we want to apply our talents next? What's our next problem statement? Let’s take the time to develop it before trying to come up with solutions.
Starting with a new joint problem statement is a great target achievement. Thanks Erika for sharing.`
Perhaps the real goal is how do we build software for our managers so they get the credit when executives like what the team has done and avoid the blame when executives are unhappy with the result.
If thats the real goal then traditional waterfall project management meets this goal better than agile does because its all about getting sign off from senior managers on detailed documents at each stage of the process so that you can point to those approvals when youre getting blamed.