Binder
Agile was a philosophy, not a program
Agile was meant to be a cultural statement about how software differs from manufacturing. Iteration, learning, adaptation. That’s the insight.
What happened instead: agile became a program. A rigid process. And in doing so it recreated the exact problems it was meant to solve.
How it went wrong
Engineers used it to consolidate power. The Product Owner became, in practice, an engineer’s business butler — writing stories that justified what engineering already wanted to build.
The fundamental fault line is still there: engineers solve problems as presented. They don’t think about market aggregation, about what a thousand customers need in common, about the commercial shape of value. That’s PM’s job, and agile didn’t change that. It just blurred the lines.
What to keep, what to drop
- Keep the philosophy — Software is different from manufacturing. Iterate. Learn. Adapt to what you find.
- Drop the program — Stand-ups, ceremonies, story points, velocity. None of that is the work. None of it is strategy.
- Don’t confuse agile for thinking — Process can move a known plan through a known team. It can’t tell you what to build or who to build it for. That decision still has to be made by someone willing to make it.
Doctrinally sound, not doctrinally bound. Know the principles. Don’t be a slave to the program.