Devops for Growth

Key Takeaways

A dogmatic approach to Agile, such as prescriptively adhering to the Scrum Guide, is not Agile and is a serious antipattern
Internalizing the Lean Agile Values and Principles is key to a successful Agile transformation
Organizational complexity demands a multi-framework approach tailored to the organization’s unique culture, goals, and issues
Theory must be informed by practice
Agility is a means to an end, not the end itself

Welcome to Agnostic Agile

As experienced agile practitioners and as people responsible for agile change and transformation, we should recognise the importance of being agnostic with agility at any level. This means one size does not fit all, one framework is not the answer, and the ‘what’ and ‘how’ should be suited to customer context and to a wider strategic vision.

We should take this very seriously. Our work is to help our customers attain the right level of agility that meets their needs, our work is not to create framework lock-ins nor to limit how agility can be applied to the organisation, whether at team levels or at scale.

This means we as agile practitioners must strive to be masters of our craft, understand and practice at least two formally established frameworks or methods, uphold good conduct between ourselves and others, and help to nurture and grow our community of agile practitioners.

Agnostic Agile is a manifestation of these intentions, distilled succinctly into a set of principles.