Agile is dead. We need to be agile!

Everyone wants to be “Agile.” But nobody even understands what “being Agile” means today.

Agile is dead. We all know it.

And that’s a good thing. Why?

I understand the sentiment. Agile Manifesto was needed at that time. But sentiments aside, apart from values, it was a Project Manifesto with:

• Someone external to DEVs “changing the requirements” (the build trap)
• Working software as “the primary measure of progress” (output)
• Just doing and listening to the customer (customer-vendor, B2B only)

So I encourage you to use “agile” from the dictionary. Forget about the obsolete “A.” And focus on what matters today:

• Long-term strategy over short-sighted goals
• Customer value over temporary business gains
• Discovering what to build over implementing someone’s ideas
• Missionaries over mercenaries
• Valuable outcomes over working output
• Learning from the data over trusting stakeholders’ opinions
• Eliminating waste over welcoming it every iteration
• Continuous improvement over learning in batches
• Releasing often over regular internal reviews

Bonus: People and interactions over immutable frameworks.

Anything else?