We Are Living in a Post-Agile World

What works will remain, the rest will be gone.

Agile is dying, and becoming much less relevant. There are only two paths ahead for Agile to diminish even more until it becomes irrelevant or to finally change to survive by focusing on delivering value and not dogma.

I do hope Agile adapts because despite all the valid criticisms there are still lots of useful ideas and principles inside of the different Agile approaches like Scrum or even SAFe, but the problem lies in a series of processes and meetings that management rightly feels are a waste of time and effort, and the associated dogma that frequently comes with it.

Layoffs for Agile positions are now a trend, and there are much fewer new jobs that focus on Agile responsibilities such as Scrum Master or Agile Coach. Layoffs in Agile positions are worse than those in software engineering, the current economic downturn and AI have made companies focus on cutting costs, and focus on those jobs that truly deliver value.

However, there is a big difference with the world of Lean, Lean is more alive and relevant than ever! That is because Lean has always focused on being efficient, getting things done, and reducing waste across the board, so Lean does not endorse useless meetings, useless charts, or even theory, the focus is always in what works best, what brings value.

Lean’s focus has always been on getting things done, doing things with high quality, and efficiency. The Toyota Production System, The Theory of Constraints, and System Thinking are alive and well respected by those who know those approaches work.

There is a resurgence of interest in the Lean Management approaches precisely because businesses have noticed that those methods focus on getting results first, and the process second. Lean approaches focus on what I call RETURN ON CHANGE: what direct benefit would we have in our bottom line, product, or market share if we do this?

Among the Lean methods and frameworks, I particularly like Kanban, Flow, and TOC which are less well-known, but quite useful and efficient for any business today. Lean is doing well in this post-agile world. Soon my own Lean approach will finally contribute as well to this body of knowledge: The BREAKthrough method, and the book that explains it will finally arrive this quarter, the book is finished, and I am now in the final editing phase.

One last thing must be mentioned: This change has also brought a resurgence in Project Management, so much so that the organization behind Project Management, the PMI, has absorbed the Agile Alliance. Furthermore, jobs for Project Managers have increased significantly despite the layoffs. The reason is clear: Project Management focuses on assuming responsibility for delivering results.

We have entered a new era of efficiency, where getting things done comes first.