Why We Need to Hold Our Approaches to Agile Accountable

 

qWhile I agree Agile can’t fail since Agile is a concept, I believe different approaches can contribute to its success or failure. I think this should be self-evident but I hear many people say “Scrum (or SAFe) doesn’t fail, people fail.” I mention Scrum and SAFe because I hear this often about these two. I trust I’ll never hear someone say that about Disciplined Agile, but if you do, let me know and I’ll talk tothem.

There are two major reasons having a sense of responsibility is important. First, blaming people has one stop striving for improvement. Approaches need to recognize Gerry Weinberg’s comment “no matter how it looks at first, it's always a people problem” and incorporate this into their approach. This is one reason attending to culture is so important – and why it’s so damaging that few do.
Consider a set of instructions to put together a piece of furniture. Poor instructions will make the job harder. While a person failed, better instructions might have helped. In complex situations the need for guidance is even greater. 

Trying to defend an approach by saying it’s too complex or you can’t figure out everything are just other ways to justify stopping improvement.