Lately I'm hearing a lot about agile "processes" and teams that claim to be adopting an agile "methodology". This sort of language speaks as if certain structures and procedures can be adopted which will make a team agile. This thinking is misguided at best, damaging at worst. When Kent, Bob, Ward and the other 17 "Apostles of Agile" crafted the Agile Manifesto, they did not publish a list of procedures or processes. Instead they provided a set of values and priorities.
Are you part of a team that is striving to be agile? If so, ask yourself, what is the primary driving force behind your efforts?
- Structures
- Procedures
- Processes
- Methodologies
or
- Values
- Priorities
- Principles
Do we need structures and procedures? Absolutely! They are the context in which we perform concrete actions in order to fulfill the values and priorities to which we are committed. However, it is the ability to adapt these structures and procedures that makes an Agile team. When methods and structures are rigid and unchanging, agility has ceased.
Agile is not a process, but it is about how we create, shape and adjust our processes. The real question to ponder is this: "Do current structures, procedures and metholodogies enable us to maximally operate according to our values, priorities and core principles?" This is the question of alignment (a concept I will explore further in future posts). If the answer is "no" then are you willing to do something about it?
Tags: agile, process, scrum