How Agile became a mis-Agile Disaster
Agile, originally designed to enhance development performance and delivery without sacrificing quality, has devolved into what the author calls 'mis-Agile'—a rigid, dogmatic approach that undermines project continuity and accountability. The shift has been driven by outsourcing firms, a surge in low-competence IT labor, and corporate strategies to avoid responsibility by blaming decentralized teams. Despite its original emphasis on skilled professionals, modern Agile often relies on junior staff in flat, poorly managed structures.
- ▪Agile was originally intended to improve development efficiency while maintaining quality through skilled, professional teams.
- ▪Outsourcing companies promoted mis-Agile to increase billable hours and reduce accountability in project delivery.
- ▪The IT labor boom led to a decline in average competence, with outsourcing firms absorbing many underqualified graduates.
- ▪Corporations adopted mis-Agile to shift blame onto 'empowered' teams while maintaining top-down control and reducing middle management.
- ▪The author's early experience with a hybrid of XP and structured SDLC proved effective, contrasting with later fragmented Agile implementations.
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How Agile became a mis-Agile DisasterAndrey Galkin5 min read·Just now--ListenShareBack in the end of the 90’s and start of the 00’s, Agile was an approach to cut corners for highly professional activities to improve development performance and delivery times without sacrificing quality. Somehow, the true Agile bias of the manifesto and the principles turned into dogmas of complete rejection of less favorable values. Let’s call it mis-Agile.Mis-Agile’s main problem used to be and remains project continuity upon staff rotation, including up- and down-scaling. Therefore, even in the early 10’s, large US corporations were not accepting pure Agile as a replacement for project and program management.
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