Agile Is Dead, Long Live Continuous Delivery

Yes, we use Kanban where I work. We've been doing "continuous delivery" and "DevOps" for years.

It's not bad, but I still don't really like scrums.

The author mentions the Agile Manifesto. It's worth a read, and the concepts it focuses on are somewhat different than the impression that you'd get by reading about Agile in popular blog posts or websites: http://agilemanifesto.org/

  Manifesto for Agile Software Development

  We are uncovering better ways of developing
  software by doing it and helping others do it.
  Through this work we have come to value:

  Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  Working software over comprehensive documentation
  Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  Responding to change over following a plan

  That is, while there is value in the items on
  the right, we value the items on the left more.

That's the gist of it: being Agile means valuing the things on the left more. It is a set of values, not a methodology.

I think this manifesto is wise. Like Zen koans, contemplating and discussing it provides an understanding about what Agile is. Fortunately it's not cryptic, although the meaning behind the statements might become clearer with consideration and experience. "Individuals and interactions" is saying, focus on getting people together and talking and working things out, not following a predefined process or using complex tracking tools. "Customer collaboration over contract negotiation" is written, I assume, in the context of contract work, but it applies generally to the relationship between the software team and stakeholders: collaborate with your stakeholder directly, rather than trying to negotiate some kind of specification (contract) up front. The Twelve Principles of Agile Software are also worth a read: http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

These principles are what Agile is about -- not some particular methodology. Indeed, blindly following a methodology like Scrum would violate the Agile Manifesto ("individuals and interactions over process"). One of the things that I like about the Agile Manifesto and Principles is that they're not prescribing a particular method; they are instead providing some principles to consider while thinking about a situation. I've always liked Amazon's Leadership Principles for the same reason: https://www.amazon.jobs/principles - insight comes from thinking about what it means to embody a principle in a given situation; or what it means to value one principle over another, in what situations, and why. It's not prescriptive nor a method, but it's a starting point for discussion, and a way of talking about what we value as individuals, a team, or a company.

I see it more as death by ubiquity. When the last laptop is sold, we'll proclaim the computer is dead, but we'll do so from our phones, tablets, headsets and whatever we use to tap into vast AI's that help us navigate the unfathomable complexity and depth of an ocean of information.

We will proclaim agile is dead without realising we constantly adapt our code to changing needs of our users and their representatives who are very deeply involved in the whole process and who give us feedback as we constantly release new functionality.

While their meaning remains constant.

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

-- The Who