In February of 2001, seventeen people gathered at Utah’s Snowbird lodge to discuss software. They were a diverse group, some with competing interests, some of whom admitted that it seemed unlikely that they would “ever agree on anything substantive.” While many of the concepts that emerged as the Agile Manifesto were not new concepts to those who attended the gathering, the distillation of the ideas into something substantive that was valued by them all was monumental and has become a beacon of shared values that have started to transform our industry.
The concept of Agile has been disruptive to the industry — and that’s a good thing. Every industry has gone through serious evolution over time; just think of how things have changed over the centuries in the areas of home construction, science, and health care. By the late 90′s, our industry had become entrenched in practices that needed disrupting. And yet, many of you have probably noticed that not everyone welcomes Agile. My experience has been that interest often begins at the developer level (or even developer management level). And then acceptance of the idea is mixed from there. Of course, acceptance among the development team can also be mixed depending on the chosen methodology and how well it blends with the members of the team. It seems that Agile is most effective when the company management finds value in it, drives Agile adoption and embraces the culture change that brings to the company.
