Agile 2

Agile 2: The Next Iteration of Agile, by Kurt Cagle, argues that the Agile approach, now about twenty years old, needs a major overhaul. According to an Allied Market Research study, 63 percent of respondents reported that Agile implementation had failed in their organizations. The author traces much of this to senior executives who do not understand what Agile involves and cannot tell success from failure.

The book treats Agile transformation as a gradual process in which most progress comes from people experimenting with new methods in their own daily work. Coaches and training can improve the odds, but the author contends that many Agile ideas are oversimplified or applied in extreme ways, and that several elements essential to success are missing. He also points to rigid practices imposed on teams, such as dedicated agile team rooms, and to a broader resistance to change within the Agile community.

The text distills the work of fifteen experienced Agile experts and was written by seven of them. It proposes that Agile should balance five pairs of attributes: thoughtfulness and prescription, outcomes and outputs, individuals and teams, business and technical understanding, individual empowerment and good leadership, and adaptability and planning. It also sets out a new set of Agile principles meant to guide the movement over the next twenty years.

The author extends these ideas beyond software and hardware to every part of an agile organization, including functions such as Agile HR and Agile Finance. Like the original Agile, Agile 2 is a set of ideas rather than a fixed method. The author suggests that a single set of ideas is not enough to carry out any undertaking, but it can serve as a powerful guide.