#142 – Agile

So, what’s the problem with ‘Agile’? Well, though it can seem like semantics, in our (extremely nerdy agile) eyes, ‘‘Agile’ is something we do, and ‘agile’ is something we are–and, since we like organizations that are aspiring to be agile, we prefer the lowercase ‘agile’.

Spelling aside, more importantly, distinguishing between doing and being agile can help us understand that systemic changes are needed to fully embrace the agile principles and experience the benefits of adaptability. E.g., just following the Scrum events will not change your organization’s ability to change direction according to end user feedback if there is a stage-gate-based funding and scoping mechanism wrapped around your Scrum-based product development effort. In order to be agile here, that outer process needs to be addressed and changed, as well.