Just like the author, I am a fan of the Agile Manifesto but have deep misgivings about the commercial Agile implementations, like Scrum, that are being foisted on development organizations as a panacea. I began my development career in 1972 and have worked as a coder, designer, senior software architect, VP of software development, and software company CEO. I’ve yet to see the effective deployment of the canned “Agile” processes like Scrum for any purpose other than Web site development.

The conception, design, implementation, deployment, and maintenance of large complex software systems requires experienced, skilled, and thoughtful management to be successful. Unfortunately, those are not the skills valued in our modern corporate world. “Agile” is just another methodology in a long line of commercialized methodologies that have been hyped to corporate management as a solution to what, at its root, is fundamentally a management problem. None of these “methodologies” addressed the underlying issues or were successful in the real world. Eventually “Agile” will fade away as well. There are no simple replacements for good management.