Reimagining Agile: How Agile Lost Its Soul and is Seeking to Get It Back

In Tracy Kidder’s The Soul of a New Machine, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book published in 1981, the term “soul” captures the intangible essence and human spirit that drive technological creation. Kidder beautifully illustrates this through the story of building Data General’s first “super-minicomputer.” For him, “soul” meant the passion, dedication, and personal investment of engineers, along with the blend of human ambition that creates technological innovation. The book examines the deep emotional and intellectual connection people have with their work, reflecting their identities and aspirations as they create something remarkable.

Two decades later, many of us lived through a similar experience we labeled “agile.” Remember when agile was a game-changer? Agile was formed as a shared set of values that when organizations fully adopted, embedded a soul and spirit that fostered unparalleled value creation. Salesforce was one company that reaped this value, using agile software development and agile leadership to top Forbes’ list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for four consecutive years, from 2011 to 2014.

Over the past decade, it seems we’ve lost that original spirit and soul. Agile was meant to be about flexibility, collaboration, and delivering real value. Now, it often feels like just another checkbox exercise. Teams conduct stand-ups because they have to, not because they find them valuable. Iteration planning drags on, and retrospectives can feel like blame games. Why did the spirit and soul of agile wither, and how do we bring them back?

Agile Confusion: The Soul and Corpse

It’s hard to imagine anyone who doesn’t appreciate a good movie. I remember sitting in the theater watching the original Star Wars, Circa 1977, mesmerized by the thrilling opening, words scrolling down the screen followed by the Galactic Empire’s battle-cruiser emerging overhead to John Williams’ rousing music.

Movies are simply the latest technology in storytelling. And storytelling has been vital to a rich human experience since the formation of communities. From a cave and campfire, to a community theater, to an immersive IMAX experience, to our living room couch streaming a movie, storytelling allows us to experience a range of emotions and takes us to times and places not possible through physical means.

So while storytelling “technology” has changed over the span of humanity, the core value of storytelling remains vital and valuable. And movies themselves continue to evolve in production and distribution technology. From the theater to VHS rentals provided a huge leap, and yet again with streaming services.

Ok, cool. But what does this have to do with agile?

The agile movement has blurred the word “agile” to the point that we no longer distinguish between the value from delivery, the content from container, the soul from the corpse. In storytelling terms, we’ve interwoven the movie with the technology delivering the movie. It’s as if we associate the movie with the VHS tape. And because the VHS tape no longer provides the best experience for the movie experience, we feel movies are no longer valuable. We know that isn’t true with actual movies as we have better ways to experience them and technology has moved on. So is true with agile.

The “movie” of agile goes back to the foundational principles and values. The VHS of Agile is locked up in the frameworks, technologies and tools supporting those values. It’s time we jettison the old containers, but don’t throw out the content within.

In the agile movement we have blurred the distinction between containers and content. For me, agile consists of three components — methods, methodology, and mindset. Methods are the individual practices like test-driven development or sprint planning, methodology (or framework) is the aggregation of practices into a life cycle “container” that delivers results, and mindset is the “spirit and soul” that guide how work is accomplished. For a community, “spirit” refers to its energy, enthusiasm, and drive. It’s the dynamic force that propels us forward. “Soul” provides the community’s foundational values, the ethical and moral framework that guides the deeper meaning behind the community’s existence.

The agile movement began with extraordinary enthusiasm. The history page of the Agile Manifesto, provides insight into the author’s hopes. The following is an excerpted and slightly modified narrative from that history.

“But while the Manifesto provides some specific ideas, there is a deeper theme that drives members of the alliance. At the close of the two-day meeting, Robert Martin joked that he was about to make a “mushy” statement. But while tinged with humor, few disagreed with Bob’s sentiments-that we all felt privileged to work with a group of people who held a set of compatible values, a set of values based on trust and respect for each other and promoting organizational models based on people, collaboration, and building the types of organizational communities in which we would want to work.”

Part of the Agile Manifesto website includes a page where anyone could “sign” it and make comments. Over 15,000 individuals from all over the world eventually signed and many made comments in the early years like:

• “Agile Development makes so much sense in practice, as to make any other approach almost laughable.”
• “Every developer should put this manifesto over his/her desk as a reminder.”
• “I hope that this is only the beginning of a great journey. I’m with it, all the way!”

Seeking a Renewed Spirit and Soul

Recent years have seen reactions to the mounting disappointments with agile. Articles declaring that “Agile is Dead,” have become frequent. Individuals lament that organizations haven’t delivered on the hope that accompanied the early years of agile. But there is a growing community that believes reimagining agile is preferable to abandoning agile.

Two good friends of mine have begun recapturing the “spirit and soul” of agile. Joshua Kerievsky 🇺🇦 ‘s recent book, Joy of Agility serves as both a guide and an inspiration for those looking to deepen their understanding of what it means to be truly agile. , captures similar ideas in his “Heart of Agile” initiative. As the idea of reimagining agile has progressed in the last couple of years, there are many people, some I know, and many I don’t, who have contributed to reigniting the spirit and soul of agile. My personal vision for the purpose of the Reimagining Agile initiative has evolved: Alistair Cockburn

To recapture the soul and spirit, the hope, excitement, and joy of the agile movement and use that mindset to prosper as AI and biotechnology create waves of “unparalleled possibility and unimaginable peril.”

While we engage in debates about containers, certifications, and whether the Agile Manifesto discards documentation and planning, we’re essentially rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic in the face of an onrushing technological tsunami.

The agile community has had unprecedented accomplishments and suffered disappointments. But on balance, whether we are discussing software development, project management, leadership, how to accomplish digital transformations, business agility, or how to balance the opportunities and threats of onrushing AI and bio technologies, the spirit and soul of the agile community has, and can, lead the way.

Let’s revive the true spirit of agile by championing its original values. Encourage your teams to welcome change, work together seamlessly, and keep the customer at the forefront. Let’s reimagine the spirit and soul of agile!

My thanks to Pete Behrens for our ongoing idea exchange that resulted in this article.

The “unparalleled possibility and unimaginable peril” quote comes from Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI.

The image was generated by DALL-E.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.