What Agile is Not: Episode Four of the Agile Heretic

There are some very (depressingly) common agile anti-patterns that are codified or nearly codified in agile teams. I promise this is the last “list” episode of Agile heretic.

This is a list of seven things agile is not. This also came from the coders in the midwest, all of whom returned from agile training believing these were healthy and sanctioned actions.

2 What Agile is not

2.1 Locking yourself in a cube (ISOLATION)

Agile is not isolating your team or yourself. It is not product owners or scrum masters “protecting the team”. It is not squelching communication.

2.2 Never documenting things (IGNORANCE)

Anyone who tells you “I don’t document because it’s not agile” is just promoting ignorance. Undocumented code is future unsolvable technical debt.

2.3 Repeating mindless behaviors (RITUALS)

Cadences and ensuring different types of actions happen, if not regularly, at least responsibly. Mindless rituals become boring and people tune out. Remember, coders are humans. They get bored with redundant and rarely useful meeting formats.

2.4 Coding Masturbation (STUPID EXPERIMENTS)

Yes, you want to experiment. No, you don’t want to just fuck around with your hands. Experimentation is actually a process. We’re not going to cure cancer by saying “write me the cancer user story and I’ll solve it.”

2.5 Roles from Someone Else’s Reality (MIMICRY)

Roles are really important, someone else’s roles are devastating. Don’t mimic Spotify or Riot. They are awesome because they think about and change their processes. You can’t copy and paste culture.

2.6 Planning but not Plans (SPRINT PLANNING)

Sprint planning uses resources every two week specifically designed to force work into a small space. It is a plan. It is not planning.

2.7 Stuff in Books (FALSE GODS)

Because we aren’t paying attention, we do things the books tell us to. Story points, velocity, POs, ScrumMasters, user stories … none of these things “are agile”. Agile teams might use them, but they are not the definition of agile. Teams fail when they try to manage themselves using these activities but not understanding their work. By doing these “agile” things they are fundamentally breaking every line in the agile manifesto.

The Series: Intro | Who is Agile For? | The Soul of Agile | What Agile is Not

Jim Benson is the creator and co-author of Personal Kanban. His other books include Why Limit WIP, Why Plans Fail, and Beyond Agile. He is a winner of the Shingo Award for Excellence in Lean Thinking and the Brickell Key Award. He teaches online at Modus Institute and consults regularly, helping clients in all verticals create working system. He regularly keynotes Agile and Lean conferences, focusing on the future of work.