"Agile Signaling" is Gaslighting The Tech Industry

Thriving Technologist

Today most tech companies engage in agile signaling - without even knowing it. They do nothing to make it easy to adapt to change, but put on a show to pretend they're agile.

Many software developers and other professionals in the industry, even those with long careers, have never been on project with a truly agile software development process. And so it's not uncommon to hear software engineers and project managers talk about how much they "hate agile" behind closed doors.

A select few understand what being agile really means. It means working together in a way where adapting to change is easy. For those unfortunate people, it can feel like gaslighting to work for these companies. Tech workers all over the industry are expressing more disgust with scrum and agile than ever. And when the SAFe, or "Scaled Agile Framework" arrived - it signaled a final nail in the coffin of many companies ever being able to realize the true benefits of being agile.

In this episode I'd like to help you understand two things. First, we we need agile development more than ever today. With the arrival of AI, software projects are getting disrupted faster than ever and need to adapt. And who knows what the future could bring! I'll also help you understand 4 key events in the history of the software industry that caused the definition of the word agile to essentially mean "anything BUT change"!

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Chapter markers / timelinks:

(0:00) Introduction (1:31) 1. Do We Even Need Agile Development? (1:37) 1.1 Inability To Respond To Market Change (3:55) 1.2 Over Budget and Late Projects (5:50) 2. 4 Key Events That Co-Opted Agile (6:16) 2.1 Burn-Down Charts and Velocity Tracking (9:21) 2.2 Jeff Sutherland's Book (12:47) 2.3 Agile Certifications (15:51) 2.4 SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) (21:12) Episode Groove

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