"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly."
- Albert Einstein
- Albert Einstein
I have noticed a disturbing trend in the industry around agile discussions. This may finally be real proof that agile has been hijacked by the mainstream: silencing dissenting views.
In the last two weeks I have posted comments on articles pointing out that the emperor is indeed without clothes. (e.g. appropriating agile terms and ceremonies while continuing do work they way you always have, does not make one agile.)
It is almost a politically correct thing now. I find myself practicing self-censorship rather than speak my mind about a certain scaling framework, or a hyphenated approach to agile, for fear of retribution.
When did it become a bad thing to have a particular opinion about an approach to building software? Names have been hurled: "Purist!", "idealist!" drinker of the agile "kool-aid". I even had a well respected colleague yell at me when expressing an opinion about said framework that he did not agree with. Could have been the beer talking, but I doubt it.
Then there's those who claim agile can't work in the "real world".
The "real world"? Really?
Any time I hear someone say, "In the real world..." I think "Where do you think I have been developing software for the last 18 years? Narnia?" I have seen agile work and I have seen what large companies do when they "go agile" by adopting a hybrid approach or that extremely popular scaling framework. Ask yourself this question: if all the Project Managers that have been practicing plan driven project management their entire career love it the minute they see it, do you really think it's agile?
Am I a bad person if I don't jump on a particular bandwagon? Don't I have the right to disagree on an intellectual level without fear of being labeled evil? Since they just keep censoring my comments, perhaps it would be best to just go along with the crowd - where it's SAFe.
Not a chance.
