Agile: the tool for decision making

There is no doubt that Agile in general and Scrum in particular have given a squeeze in the last decade, especially in our country.

Agile is not a fad

Although it began to take shape in the mid-90s of the last century, even today it is difficult to make those responsible for companies understand the benefits and benefits of Agile. Right now, Scrum sells itself. And not because we say so. Just take a look at the annual state of Agile report or ask any colleague in the tech sector if they “know Scrum”. Most will say yes. The informed will tell us that they are doing very well to organize (well for them), the clueless will ask us if “this is that of the dailies?” (To those, we always answer “yes, that’s it”) and the combative ones may tell us that in their company they tried it, but that “it does not work” (with these we always stay with the fly behind the ear).

Why is there a disparity of opinions about Agile?

We have come to a conclusion with the latter group. In their companies many adopt Scrum because it is fashionable. Because of pretending. While ten years ago you could see agile implementations based on conscientious study or, at least, on conviction, posturing is increasingly abundant. That posture in which humans end up converting most things of general consumption and that, because of the “what they will say”, we end up showing that we practice in the most natural and convinced way. And to much honor! There are examples kicking, and without the intention of polemicizing, which surely many people will be doing with conviction: veganism, social networks, yoga, mindfulness or running (even the word is postureo, we could use “go for a run”).

Continuing with Scrum, we have found ourselves on many occasions, companies and teams where, for example, they did not have a Scrum Master or Product Owner defined, they did not carry out typical events such as Retrospectives or Reviews. That priorities change even in the middle of a random sprint. And we could continue with more similar situations. These demonstrate, at the very least, that nothing of what Scrum means has been understood. Without going into the intentions, which we do not doubt can be very noble, we must be clear about what Scrum consists of and what benefits it will bring us. Basically, why we do it. Not because everyone does it, or because it looks good, or to appear on a slide in the next powerpoint with shareholders, to see how modern we are.

ROI or Return on Investment

Agile starts in essence of the team and serves the team, behind closed doors. That has to be the germ, the seed. Then it also serves the promoter of the initiative, of course, since, well done, it increases communication and collaboration between all parties, and avoids mistakes and misunderstandings (there is the real savings). But posture and agile are essentially contradictory because it is first about self-organizing well and doing it internally, so that, then, yes, from the outside the results are seen. If we think only of the exterior, of the façade, of pretending, without understanding what we really do, the implementation will invariably be doomed to failure, or worse, to mediocrity. Agile helps us to deliver value as soon as possible and therefore, among many other things, improve our Return on Investment. According to the Standish Group, the probability of success of projects that use Agile is three times higher than those that use traditional or Waterfall methodology. These data show the clear improvement it entails, as long as it is used correctly, of course.

To all those who have not worked, as Agile professionals, these cases make us sad, because then it is very difficult to change that dynamic. It takes a lot of effort to change people’s first impressions, the widespread feeling that it didn’t work. The reasons are the least! As much as we tell them that Scrum or Agile is going well, they will put up resistance. It’s very difficult to change that dynamic and it’s a shame. Because let’s be clear. Agile methodologies go very well if practiced correctly. And for this you need a clear reason and qualified personnel, so can we help you?