Interviewed recently on the subject of “why does agile fail?”, our Co-Founder James Cannings found himself rolling out similar answers to those that he has been talking about for over a decade now. Are we getting better, or worse? 

Certainly, it feels like “agile” (and its associated methodologies) is becoming a scapegoat for failed projects and digital transformations - much in the way that people blamed PRINCE2 for similar digital failings a few years before. 

It’s got so bad that there is even a phrase for it “fake agile” - defined brilliantly here on Forbes by leadership coach and agile expert Steve Denning. 

Like “fake news” the term is used by detractors to describe a strain of agile that we don’t like. But, unlike the fake news debate, we have in fact lost sight of the core principles that make agile what it is. 

There is nothing wrong with agile, per se. There is no “fake agile”, just agile done badly. And in the hundreds of projects that MMT Digital has been involved in, none failed because the agile methodology let them down. Rather, the project was executed badly, misunderstood or (in the case of agile) any host of specific reasons.

Read James’ full article Why Fake Agile Isn’t Fake News.