We Object To The Rampant Distortion Of Agile And Scrum.

We are calling B.S. on what is usually sold as Agile and Scrum. We love the four values and twelve principles of the Agile Manifesto, the original reason our movement was called Agile. Some of us were also inspired by a realistic and useful vision of Scrum. But Agile and Scrum are usually twisted to mean something incompatible with this prior intent, especially in organizations that are bigger than one team.

Traditional organizations will not gain agility with the change theater that is often sold as “Agile.” Change theater is actively counterproductive, inoculating organizations against the structural and policy changes they would need.

Agile organizations learn, reprioritize, and adapt to changing customer needs, rather than focusing on quantity of output.

Even when many teams are involved, adaptability can be fine-grained, on a timescale of a week to a month rather than limited to coarse multi-month program increments and quarterly goals.

In knowledge work, “dependencies” are not caused by immutable laws of physics. The perceived need to plan around them through multiple Sprints is a symptom of obsolete organizational structure, policy, and skills. This should be directly addressed rather than institutionalized with the waterfall dependency management that masquerades as Agile scaling.

Team self management implies a simplified, disintermediated organizational structure. Role-free teams coordinate directly with other teams and learn directly from customer interaction. Please stop rebadging traditional specifiers and coordinators with Agile-sounding names.

Saying yes to agility means saying no to things that are mischaracterized as Agile. Here are some things we can do instead:

eliminate processes not owned by teams
eliminate unnecessary intermediate layers and handoffs (e.g. people mislabeled “Product Owners” who actually own only one team instead of the whole Product)
eliminate unnecessary process-imposed role segregation (e.g. various kinds of crypto-project-managers)
eliminate software tools that affect the way teams manage their Product Backlogs and Sprint Backlogs
eliminate the obsession with quantitative measures
learn to detect other traditional practices relabeled and disguised as “Agile”

In 2001, when helping craft the Agile Manifesto, Alistair Cockburn made an observation that still resonates:

I am interested in fending off the fat methodology army, the vast quantity of RUP, Anderson, SEI, etc. salespeople putting ideas into CIOs’ minds that they should have lots of paperwork to be “safe.” Countering the “I want a turnkey methodology, one that works straight out of the box” mentality. Those are the two battles I could use help in.

We support approaches such as LeSS that are based on fundamental Agile principles because they can better serve customers and employees. We reject ‘scaling’ approaches that increase organizational complexity and disempower teams.

Signatories

Michael James (MJ), Seattle, WA, 3 Aug 2019
Manoj Vadakkan, Denver, CO, 3 Aug 2019
Add your name!
Gene Gendel, New York, NY, Aug 4, 2019
Rowan Bunning, Sydney, Australia, Aug 4, 2019
Robert Weidner, Twin Cities, MN, Aug 4, 2019
Naveen Kumar Singh, Aug 4, 2019
Emerson Mills, Bend, OR, Aug 4, 2019
Adib Motiwala, Irving, TX, Aug 4, 2019
Bryan Agosto, Aug 4, 2019
Viktor Grgić, Aug 4, 2019
Michael Küsters, Aug 4, 2019
Aaron Kopel, Indianapolis, IN, Aug 4, 2019
Atulya Krishna, India, Aug 4, 2019
Doug Spencer, Bend, OR, Aug 4, 2019
Richard Ross, Prague, Czech Republic, Aug 5, 2019
Tilman Moser, Bad Kreuznach, Germany, Aug 5, 2019
Mark A Stanley, Aug 5, 2019
Illia Pavlichenko, Aug 5, 2019
Marc Lustig, Munich, Germany, Aug 5, 2019
Greg Hutchings, Paris, France, Aug 5, 2019
Saby Singh, Aug 5, 2019
Jacek Bochenek, Wrocław, Poland, Aug 5, 2019
Jürgen De Smet, Aug 5, 2019
Dinesh Sharma, Aug 5, 2019
Markus Gärtner, Lage, Germany, Aug 5, 2019
Ran Nyman, Helsinki, Finland, Aug 5, 2019
Mark Uijen de Kleijn, Aug 5, 2019
Robert Briese, Berlin, Germany, Aug 5, 2019
Krzysztof Niewiński, Warsaw, Poland, Aug 5, 2019
Duke Femz, Aug 5, 2019
Steven Deneir, Aug 5, 2019
John Coleman, London, UK, Aug 5, 2019
Lien Van den Broeck, Belgium, Aug 5, 2019
Juan Banda, Cochabamba, Bolivia, Aug 5, 2019
Steven Mak, Hong Kong, Aug 5, 2019
Adam Polczyk, London, UK, Aug 5, 2019
Csaba Tanczos, Aug 5, 2019
Francesco Sferlazza, Aug 5, 2019
Georg Fasching, Porto, Portugal, Aug 5, 2019
Jeremy Naus, Antwerp, Belgium, Aug 5, 2019
Julio Oliveira, São Paulo, Brazil, Aug 5, 2019
Rusty Haley, Aug 5, 2019
Hubert Młodzianowski, Warsaw, Poland, Aug 5, 2019
Darren Terrell, Saint Augustine, FL, Aug 5, 2019
Srikanth Ramanujam, Toronto, Ontario Canada, Aug 5, 2019
Konstantin Ribel, Munich, Germany, Aug 5, 2019
Wim Wijsman, Leusden, the Netherlands, Aug 5, 2019
Erin Perry, Aug 5, 2019
Narayann Swaami, Aug 5, 2019
Richard Hundhausen, Boise, ID, Aug 5, 2019
Ben Maynard, United Kingdom, Aug 5, 2019
Brad Swanson, Golden, CO, Aug 5, 2019
Aki Enomoto, Tokyo, Japan, Aug 6, 2019
Andreas Schliep, Aug 6, 2019
Alidad Hamidi, Sydney, Australia, Aug 6, 2019
Javier Bonnemaison, Aug 6, 2019
Jan Erik van der Laan, Aug 6, 2019
Christoph Schmied, Graz, Austria, Aug 6, 2019
Veikko Nokkala, Helsinki, Finland, Aug 6, 2019
Brent Uzelac, Minneapolis, MN, Aug 6, 2019
Vladimir Gorshunov, Minsk, Belarus, Aug 6, 2019
James Stover, Fort Mill, SC, Aug 6, 2019
Tommi Johnstone, Portland, OR, Aug 6, 2019
Santiago Roza, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug 6, 2019
Gregory Coolen, Istanbul, Turkey, Aug 6, 2019
Jon Jorgensen, Aug 6, 2019
Phil Lewis, Manchester, UK, Aug 7, 2019
Anton Skornyakov, Berlin, Germany, Aug 7, 2019
Jozua Velle, Oostkamp, Belgium, Aug 7, 2019
Robert M. Mead, Aug 7, 2019
Naveen Kumar Bhaskaran, Aug 7, 2019
Michael Garvais, Seattle, WA, Aug 7, 2019
Nitin Khanna, Aug 7, 2019
Bruno Margueritat, Aug 7, 2019
Guillaume Lhermitte, Aug 7, 2019
Soledad Rivero, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug 7, 2019
Prashant Shinde, Pune, India, Aug 7, 2019
Denis Salnikov, Berlin, Germany, Aug 8, 2019
Leigh Clark, Berlin, Germany, Aug 8, 2019
Inna Klyachman, Aug 8, 2019
Jarno Vähäniitty, Helsinki, Finland, Aug 8, 2019
Marcel Baumann, Aug 8, 2019
Marco Juliano, Wendlingen, Germany, Aug 8, 2019
Timon Fiddike, Berlin, Germany, Aug 8, 2019
Matias Sebastian Lopez, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug 8, 2019
Marco Pochmann, Bad Dürkheim, Germany, Aug 8, 2019
Daniel Hommel, Aug 8, 2019
Ivan Zimine, Singapore, Aug 8, 2019
Angela Johnson, Minneapolis, MN, Aug 8, 2019
Jonathan Lazo, Lima, Peru, Aug 8, 2019
Maksims Jemeljanovs, Riga, Latvia, Aug 8, 2019
Geir Amsjo, Oslo, Norway, Aug 8, 2019
Bruno Veronesi, Aug 9, 2018
Samrat Jha, Aug 9, 2019
Rustam Borzov, Aug 9, 2019
Jaroslav Klech, Czech Republic, Aug 9, 2019
Roman Kohoutek, Czech Republic, Aug 9, 2019
Serge Marten, San Francisco, CA, Aug 9, 2019
Ramanathan Yegyanarayanan, Aug 9, 2019
Elisabeth Richter, Graz, Austria, Aug 9, 2019
Rick Waters, Aug 9, 2019
Ben Kopel, Aug 9, 2019
Martine Devos, Aug 9, 2019
Zuzi Sochova, Prague, Czech Republic, Aug 10, 2019
Gary Hansen, Cottage Grove, MN, Aug 10, 2019
Gerrit Beine, Plauen, Germany, Aug 10, 2019
Salah Elleithy, Baltimore, MD, Aug 10, 2019
Dennis Mansell, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Aug 11, 2019
David Stackleather, Austin, TX, Aug 11, 2019
Sameh Zeid, Dearborn, MI, Aug 11, 2019
Vinayak Kumbhakern, Aug 12, 2019
Juliana Rodrigueiro, São Paulo, Brazil, Aug 12, 2019
Arne Åhlander, Lund, Sweden, Aug 12, 2019
Ramanathan Yegyanarayanan, Chennai, India, Aug 12, 2019
Yves Vervloesem, Brussels Belgium, Aug 12, 2019
Aernout van den Burg, The Hague, the Netherlands, Aug 12, 2019
Sylvie R, Aug 12, 2019
Sergey Gospodchikov, Ulyanovsk, Russia, Aug 12, 2019
Mirza Asfaar Baig, Pakistan, Aug 13, 2019
Evelyn Tian, Aug 13, 2019
Steve Spearman, Denver, CO, Aug 13, 2019
Denis Mullaraj, Tirana, Albania, Aug 13, 2019
Jerry Rajamoney, Bangalore, India, Aug 13, 2019
Nadia Bush, Jersey Channel Islands, Aug 14, 2019
Ellen Gottesdiener, Aug 14, 2019
Sebastian Paus, Hannover, Germany, Aug 14, 2019
James Carpenter, USA, Aug 14, 2019
Mads Troels Hansen, Copenhagen, Aug 15, 2019
Philip Smith, Aug 15, 2019
Chris Hurney, Mission Viejo, CA, Aug 15, 2019
Sven de Koning, Den Haag, the Netherlands, Aug 15, 2019
Wolfgang Steffens, Aug 16, 2019
Krzysztof Liszewski, Warsaw, Poland, Aug 16, 2019
Alan Cyment, Aug 16, 2019
Michael Martin, Dayton OH, Aug 16, 2019
Dan Whiting, Cincinnati, OH, Aug 16, 2019
Gervais Johnson, San Francisco, CA, Aug 16, 2019
Danny Low, Brisbane, Australia, Aug 16, 2019
Kathrin Volkmer, Oslo, Norway, Aug 16, 2019
Fabrice Aimetti, Bordeaux, France, Aug 17, 2019
Philip Smith, Aug 17, 2019
Oleksii Khodakivskyi, Aug 17, 2019
Julien Karoubi, Paris, France, Aug 17, 2019
Alek Kozlov, Tallinn, Estonia, Aug 18, 2019
Sahin Guvenilir, London, UK, Aug 19, 2019
Ahmed Avais, Aug 19, 2019
Phil Japikse, Cincinnati, OH, Aug 19, 2019
Wolfgang Richter, Graz, Austria, Aug 20, 2019
Ozren Crnogorac, Zagreb, Croatia, Aug 20, 2019
Jacky Shen, Aug 21, 2019
Kamlesh Ravlani, Pune, India, Aug 21, 2019
Dhaval Panchal, Houston, TX, Aug 21, 2019
Bas Vodde, Aug 22, 2019
Kiran Thakkar, Aug 22, 2019
Jason Martinez, Aug 23, 2019
Abid Quereshi , London, UK, Aug 24, 2019
Danil Chernyshev, Toronto, Canada, Aug 25, 2019
Gerd Bleher, Böblingen, Germany, Aug 26, 2019
Alice O’Kane, New York, NY, Aug 28, 2019
Jeremy Fries, London, UK, Aug 28, 2019
Leandro Zis, Florianópolis, Brazil, Aug 29, 2019
Malte Sussdorff, Hamburg, Germany, Sep 1, 2019
Andy Joghi, Sep 4, 2019
Duane Kenney, Sep 5, 2019
Michael F. Forni, London, UK, Sep 8, 2019
Evgeniy Labunskiy, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sep 12, 2019
Jerry Lopez, Sep 12, 2019
Ralf Berninger, Germany, Sep 12, 2019
Kai-Uwe Rupp, Germany, Sep 12, 2019
Holger Tangermann, Magdeburg, Germany, Sep 12, 2019
Josef Scherer, Sep 12, 2019
Allan Rennebo Jepsen, Sep 12, 2019
Patrick Wunderlich, Nuremberg, Germany, Sep 12, 2019
Andrii Gontar, Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sep 13, 2019
Radoslav Ciglansky, Bratislava, Slovakia, Sep 13, 2019
Leonardo Tapia J., Madrid, Spain, Sep 13, 2019
Andrea Benton, Sydney, Australia, Sep 15, 2019
Shane Wheller, Sep 15, 2019
Mahesh Krshnan, Wellington, NZ, Sep 15, 2019
Bill Asch, Sep 15, 2019
Blazej Drobniuch, Krakow, Poland, Sep 15, 2019
Sofia Pelzl, Sep 15, 2019
Andrea Anderson, Canberra Australia, Sep 15, 2019
Sunish Chabba, Melbourne, Australia, Sep 16, 2019
Patryk Czmochowski, Sep 16, 2019
Willem Aalderink, Woerden, the Netherlands, Sep 16, 2019
Jim Christie, Sep 16, 2019
Willo van der Merwe, Cape Town, South Africa, Sep 16, 2019
Stephan Bester, Cape Town, South Africa, Sep 16, 2019
Ewan McPhail, Sep 16, 2019
Osman Çağatay Doğan, İstanbul, Turkey, Sep 16, 2019
Nick Nijenhuis, Sep 16, 2019
Sikunj Savaliya, Toronto, Canada, Sep 16, 2019
Gerard Berends, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Sep 16, 2019
Laurent Pernetta, Sep 16, 2019
Leise Astrid Passer Jensen, Copenhagen, Denmark, Sep 16, 2019
Dong-Chu Ahn, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Sep 17, 2019
Tim Peteler, Frankfurt, Germany, Sep 18, 2019
Markus Tecza, Munich, Germany, Sep 18, 2019
Tom Latka, Munich, Germany, Sep 18, 2019
Siew Kok Ewe, Penang, Malaysia, Sep 22, 2019
Nafees Butt, Sydney, Australia, Sep 23, 2019
Martin Fišer, Prague, Czech Republic, Sep 27, 2019
Cathy Simpson, Oct 4, 2019
Kārlis Cinis, Riga, Latvia, Oct 4, 2019
Michael Mai, Munich, Germany, Oct 8, 2019
Lukas Benedikt, Bratislava, Slovakia, Oct 9, 2019
Anton Romanov, Oct 13, 2109
Chokchai Phatharamalai, Thailand, Oct 15, 2019
Phongsak Ritpitakphong (Jane), Thailand, Oct 16, 2019
Ealden Escañan, Philippines, Oct 23, 2019
Clarence Xu, Stuttgart, Germany, Oct 24, 2019
Daniel Westermayr, Munich, Germany, Oct 24, 2019
Helmut Steineder, Graz, Austria, Oct 24, 2019
Tom Holt, St. Louis, MO, Oct 24, 2019
Colleen Esposito, St. Petersburg, FL, Oct 26, 2019
Markus Fuchs, Munich, Germany, Oct 27, 2019
David Cole, Munich, Germany, Oct 28, 2019
Serena Goh, Singapore, Oct 29, 2019
Mohamed Arezki, Oct 30, 2019
Harald Dietrich, Munich, Germany, Oct 30, 2019
Mohamed Chibani, Oct 30, 2019
Paul Sanders, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Nov 1, 2019
Niek Jansma, Nov 1, 2019
Martin Schwalbe Lohmann, Copenhagen, Denmark, Nov 4, 2019
Tuomas Torsti, Helsinki, Finland, Nov 5, 2019
Michał Jakubas, Gdynia, Poland, Nov 5, 2019
Daniel Heinen, Munich, Germany, Nov 5, 2019
Joachim Schmidt, Munich, Germany, Nov 5, 2019
Andrii Shevchenko, Kyiv, Ukraine, Nov 18, 2019
Nithin Bopanna, London, UK, Nov 29, 2019
Den Sunny, Munich, Germany, Dec 15, 2019
Frank Ray, London, UK, Dec 16, 2019
Christian van Stom, Brisbane, Australia, Dec 16, 2019
Anton Nemchinov, Moscow, Russia, Dec 16, 2019
Koki Shimizu, Tokyo, Japan, Dec 16, 2019
Jayadev Meka, Bangalore, India, Dec 16, 2019
Nadja Obenaus, Hamburg, Germany, Dec 17, 2019
Sergey Kotovich, Kaluga, Russia, Dec 17, 2019
Hernán Paredes, Dec 17, 2019
Mirza Asfaar Baig, Dec 19, 2019
Frank Quinteros, New York, NY, Dec 24, 2019
Ryan Ness, Minneapolis, MN, Jan 2, 2020
Pierluigi Pugliese, Munich, Germany, Jan 10, 2020
Dario Campagna, Trieste, Italy, Jan 10, 2020
Fabio Asnicar, Milan, Italy, Jan 13, 2020
Venkatesh Rajamani, Mar 10, 2020
Carla Medway, Sydney, Australia, Apr 29, 2020
Charles (Randy) Cain, Nashville, TN, May 15, 2020
César Bruschi, June 10, 2020
Daniele Herbert Raccuia, Milan, Italy, Oct 28, 2020
Juliana Ceja, Honolulu, HI, Chicago, IL, Nov 2, 2020
Brian Hart, Indianapolis, IN, Dec 3, 2020
Milan Schwarz, Brno, Czech Republic, Dec 26, 2020
John Mason, Savannah, GA, Mar 11, 2021
Dariusz Klupi, Kraków, Poland, Mar 25, 2021
Raj Kumar Radhakrishnan, Ireland, Mar 25, 2021
Ogden Rojas, Twin Cities, MN, Mar 25, 2021
Narendra Shivadas, Mar 25, 2021
Marcelo Lopez, Jr., Miami, FL, Mar 25, 2021
Rainer Hoferichter, Lauf, Germany Mar, 27, 2021
Jayaprakash Puttaswamy, Mar 29, 2021
Douglas Gore, North Carolina, Mar 30, 2021
Inga Osovsky, New Jersey, Mar 30, 2021
Colleen Maguire, New York, NY, Mar 30, 2021
Joost Okkinga, Mar 31, 2021
Ravi Jay, Isle of Dogs, London, UK, Apr 3, 2021
Maurice Huellein, London, UK, Apr 5, 2021
David Koontz, Dallas, TX, Apr 18, 2021
Michael J. Tardiff, Seattle, WA, Apr 18, 2021
Stefan Büche, Heidelberg, Germany, May 4, 2021
Fabiano Magno Pechibella, Brazil, May 25, 2021
Lisa Fraga, May 26, 2021
Christina Dorfman, May 26, 2021
Behzad Nazarbakhsh, June 15, 2021
Anna Wach, Marki, Poland, July 3, 2021
Magnus Vestin, Skelleftea, Sweden, Sep 2, 2021
Chadwick Lau, Hong Kong, Sep 5, 2021
Just Meddens, Hilversum, the Netherlands, Sep 13, 2021
Terry Yin, Singapore, Sep 14, 2021
Kiran Hosahalli, Budapest, Hungary, Sep 16, 2021
Mike Baker, Eden Prairie, MN, Oct 5, 2021
Emran Bhojawala, Eden Prairie, MN, Oct 22, 2021
Sebastian Zebrowski, Oct 24, 2021
Neil Marini, Atlanta, GA, Nov 24, 2021
Piotr Pilakowski, Poland (living in Germany), Dec 20, 2021
Lukasz Florczak, Cracow, Poland, Dec 23, 2021
Julie Holman, Phoenix, AZ, Feb 9, 2022
Bhanu Prasad Bodgari, Hyderabad, India, Feb 25, 2022
Vivek Jayaraman, Chenai, India, Mar 12, 2022
Frederik Vannieuwenhuyse, Brussels, Belgium, Apr 12, 2022
James Chan, Sydney, Australia, Nov 24, 2022
Martin Salias, Buenos Aires, Jun 30, 2023
Bastiaan van Hamersveld, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Jul 3, 2023
Benoit Dupard, Paris, France, Jul 4, 2023
Patrick C. Fernando, Brisbane, Australia, Sep 12, 2023
Salman Mohd Sultan, Sep 29, 2023
Roy Klein, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Oct 2, 2023
Alex Schwartz, Berlin, Germany, Oct 2, 2023
Michael Voorhaen, Olmen, Belgium, Oct 2, 2023
Daniel Pokrývka, Prague, Czech Republic, June 6, 2024
Jean Cloarec, Toulouse, France, Aug 27, 2024
Chris Gagné, Tākaka, New Zealand, Aug 28, 2024
Philippe Bourgeon, Paris, France, Aug 28, 2024
Christian Miles, Aug 29, 2024
John Kop, Roosendaal, the Netherlands, Aug 29, 2024
Dexter Mooi, Singapore, Aug 29, 2024
Xavier Warzee, Paris, France, Aug 29, 2024
Wout Jansen, St. Gallen, Switzerland, Aug 29, 2024
Rich Marty Harris, Aug 29, 2024
Stas Pavlov, Voorburg, the Netherlands, Aug 29, 2024
René Romkes, Leidschendam, the Netherlands, Aug 29, 2024
Minne Prins, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Aug 29, 2024
Ramsy de Vos, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands
Francesco Sferlazza, Milan, Italy, Aug 30, 2024
Théo Moussaoui, Paris, France, Aug 30, 2024
Karl Morgan, United Kingdom, Aug 30, 2024
Joel Robinson, Seattle, WA, Aug 30, 2024
Jowen Mei, Aug 31, 2024
Antonio D’Amato, Milan, Italy, Aug 31, 2024
Khalid Sultan, New York, NY, Sept 2, 2024
Paul Hutton, Singapore, Sept 5, 2024
Deniz Erkan, Los Angeles, CA, Oct 9, 2024
Add your name!