When people talk about Agile (with a capital A) organisations think "methodology for software development teams". This thinking gains credence when Agile finds its way into organisations through developers, as a grass-roots initiative, which is often the case. Taken alone, this adoption route is likely to fail, or at best, be severely hamstrung because the business and other organisational entities are not operating with the same values and principles.
In supposedly agile projects, the values and principles break down in the wider business. Some organisations are unaware of this. And most aren't capable of addressing it because of habit, superstition and fear, inertia, and a lack of top-down support. Alarmingly, compromising the values and principles seems to be culturally accepted (and, in my opinion, endemic in the industry today). If the whole organisation cannot operate with shared values and principles, the technical investment becomes increasingly overshadowed by compromises made in the business domain. And it's these compromises that eventually cause projects to fail.
These days I try not to say Agile (with a capital A). When I talk with companies I talk about "agility" and "achieving agility". For me, "agility" is the ability to deliver value to the business frequently, with quality software, and in a repeatable manner by leveraging the capability of empowered, disciplined, self-organising and cross-functional teams that are employing techniques based on the values and principles. While "achieving agility" is a continuous process of change which, to be successful, must involve the whole organisation.
This post is based on one of many thought-provoking and enlightening conversations I have with Gus.
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