Software Development is still in its infancy. You’ve tried Waterfall, it failed. You’ve tried agile, and it failed a little less. The vast majority of software projects still exceed their timeline, budget, or fail to meet the goals set out. Chances are you just went through one of these failures or are going through one right now.
Agile let you down because it tried to sell you a generic solution to a unique problem. You were promised, deliver software frequently, iterate towards ‘good enough’, involve the customer early and often, and break down the barriers between software and business, and you’ll do just fine. You did those things, are you just fine?
Successful software projects need more than a fortune cookie development philosophy that claims to be one size-fits-all. They need to be particularized for the context your team operates in, a commitment to understanding the nuances and types of software development journeys you’re going through, and a commitment to growing the organizational alignment on the purpose of the business.
Agile attacks part of the problem — the way the development team works. It doesn’t address business alignment, quality, or process management, and though the promise of agile is that it will transform your business, that seldom happens, and typically in-spite of agile, not because of it.
Better outcomes for your business depend on better practices in your business. Your software team isn’t a wholly separate special snowflake that can exist outside of the problems your business faces, or organize itself to what it needs in-spite of what your business needs. The adoption of agile philosophies may be necessary for your business, but it’s never sufficient.
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