There’s this thing…as Jim (James Shore) and I have mentioned before, in the early days of Agile we would visit teams and hear, “This is the best job I’ve ever had. I love this work.”
People who were doing Agile (usually Extreme Programming) were excited about it, they shared it with others, who did it, and got excited.
But at some point, someone shared it with someone who got excited about it and shared it but didn’t DO it, so their sharing lost a bit of fidelity, like a copy of a copy. Hearing about a thing is not the same as doing a thing.
Both the virtuous cycle (doers sharing with doers) and the vicious cycle (talking about-ers sharing with talking about-ers) continue, but now more than ever in the internet age, talk spreads faster than action.
We’re drowning in ideas, opinions, gossip (“Tell me how you failed at Agile”) and complaints about Agile, and have less opportunity to experience the real deal. At many conferences (and now through an Agile Alliance program), Experience Reports are a sought after item. People still want to hear from the successful doers.
And yet, the doing is so small in comparison to the talk, that the effective practice of Agile is in danger of being overwhelmed by the talk.
In other words, Agile is becoming a way of achieving only, “Well, my job doesn’t suck as much as it used to.”
In yet other words, Agile is in danger of being redefined as poorly done Agile.
So what to do? To achieve Agile done well and the best jobs ever, we need to feed the virtuous cycle and starve the vicious cycle. We need doers working with doers. We need the Agile Fluency Project.
We need you. Sign up. Beg, borrow or steal the time and money and join us in September.