Episode Details

Where did agile go? For years there was an Agile is dead controversy, and it was a sore spot for a lot of practitioners. My feeling was it wasn’t dead, but it was definitely changing shape. So here are the agile trends I’m watching right now, and what they mean for you.

The agile trends started with blown trust

Agile was a wonderful idea largely because it was simple. It was anti-bloat. It was a great way to make a living…until it wasn’t.

When people started lifting the veil to see where all the money was going, they didn’t see anything that screamed value. They saw a lot of people doing stuff, and it was hard to tell why it mattered. When times are tight, you cut what isn’t delivering clear, measurable value. And to a large extent, away it went.

The core principles haven’t changed. Process for process’s sake is still no good. And technology can’t go faster unless we as humans go faster. There are no Agile problems, only human problems. We have technology that didn’t exist 25 years ago, and we’re not going faster.

Agile trend #1: coaching roles are coming back (a little)

For about two years, if you searched Indeed or LinkedIn for agile coach roles, you got Scrum Master roles. That’s starting to change.

I’ve been a developer, a project manager and a business analyst, and all of those went in waves. When companies need to make cuts, contractors go first, because it shows up immediately in the results.

Agile itself never went away. Big room planning, design sprints, iterations, continuous improvement are still embedded in how we build things. What companies need now is someone senior to get people unstuck when things aren’t working. The heyday isn’t coming back. But for senior people with the wisdom and the people skills, there’s room out there if you look.

Agile trend #2: AI has divided human labour

There are things only people can do, and things automation can replace or heavily augment.

I use AI every day. For content, marketing, strategy and business ideas, it generally fails somewhere unless I inject my own supervision and instinct. It doesn’t matter how well I prompt it.

Where it does well is anything that’s data processing and directable. Research, parsing data, updating spreadsheets. Code too, but if you’re not great at testing it and making it hang together (also known as architecture), you’re going to have problems. Big businesses are struggling with that just as much as I am.

Influence, empathy, insight, creativity, herding cats…that still takes a person. Which is exactly why some of those coaching roles are coming back.

Agile trend #3: we’re putting ourselves in the removable category

Our value always came from taking something new and landing it inside a company. So naturally we’re looking at how agile and AI fit together.

The problem is where a lot of us are pointing it. If you’re automating the stuff that made your role necessary, you’re helping yourself get replaced.

Focus instead on what companies need most right now, which is staying competitive and generating shareholder value. If you can make money, save money, save time or reduce risk, you’re valuable. That’s always in style.

Agile trend #4: companies need a return on AI, and fast

Companies are spending the money and not getting the return. At least not yet.

This