LEARNING
giants such as Amazon or Google.
Examples of companies that have
failed to adapt and change — from
Kodak to the big hotel and car
companies that just didn’t seem
to see Airbnb and electric cars
coming — are legion.
In response, the battle lines have
been drawn. Consider, for example,
the rise of holacracy, a radical, ‘no
bosses’ organisational structure
which takes the agile principle of
self-managing teams to the
extreme. Developed by software
engineer Brian Robertson, its
proponents, led by Tony Hsieh, CEO
of Zappos, an online shoe and
clothing retailer, remain bullish.
But another early adopter, the
online publishing platform, Medium,
dropped it after a tricky three-year
experiment. Others simply view
holacracy as agile run mad, a recipe
for chaos, characterised by
the worst kind of survival-of-the-
f i t te s t of f i c e p o l i t i c s a n d
dehumanising processes.
When founder Evan Williams
announced that Medium was
abandoning holacracy, he cited, as
the major cause, an obsession with
process that was getting in the way
of doing the work. It’s a criticism
that’s also been levelled at leading
agile project- management
methodology, Scrum; the sense that
it’s become as inflexible and
hierarchical as any traditional
waterfall approach.
As far back as 2015, one of the
authors of The Agile Manifesto, Andy
Hunt, bemoaned the fact that “the
word ‘agile’ has become sloganized”
leading, at best, to meaningless and
half-hearted attempts at agile; at
worst, to agile zealots who continue
to “redouble their effort after they’ve
forgotten their aim”. Adopting
abstract agile concepts can be
difficult; in the race to make sense
of them, “agile methods themselves
have not been agile”. The irony was
not lost on Hunt.
Stephen Denning, author of The
Age of Agile, firmly believes that agile
concepts have become an essential
route map for management more
generally. But for Denning, agile
management is about much more
t h a n h a r n e s s i n g d a t a a nd
L
Others view holacracy
as agile run mad, a recipe
for chaos, characterised
by the worst kind of
survival-of-the-fittest
office politics
The Agile Manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do
it. Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and
interactions
over processes
and tools
Working
software over
comprehensive
documentation
Customer
collaboration
over contract
negotiation
Responding
to change
over following
a plan
We follow these principles:
1
2
3
4
5
6
ur highest priority is to satisfy the
O
customer through early and continuous
delivery of valuable software.
elcome changing requirements, even
W
late in development. Agile processes
harness change for the customer’s
competitive advantage.
eliver working software frequently, from
D
a couple of weeks to a couple of months,
with a preference to the shorter
timescale.
usiness people and developers must
B
work together daily throughout the project.
uild projects around motivated
B
individuals. Give them the environment
and support they need, and trust them
to get the job done.
T he most efficient and effective method
of conveying information to and within
a development team is face-to-face
conversation.
7
8
9
10
11
12
orking software is the primary
W
measure of progress.
gile processes promote sustainable
A
development. The sponsors,
developers and users should be able
to maintain a constant pace
indefinitely.
ontinuous attention to technical
C
excellence and good design
enhances agility.
S implicity — the art of maximising the
amount of work not done —
is essential.
T he best architectures, requirements
and designs emerge from self-
organising teams.
t regular intervals, the team reflects
A
on how to become more effective,
then tunes and adjusts its behaviour
accordingly.
February – May 2020 // 73