2023-12-24
Is 'Agile is Dead' Just Market Protection?
What if all those “Agile is dead” posts were just an attempt to discourage newcomers and decrese the supply of Agile roles in the market ?
Train of thought : When so many companies gave it a try with agile some years ago, it created a high demand on the market for Agile roles - Scrum Master became the eldorado for many unrelated roles wanting to do a shift in their career.
The quantity of Scrum Masters in the market increased quickly, while at the same time the average quality decreased - based on lack of experience obviously. As a direct effect, it also decreased the expectations from people having a first experience with those new and (too) quickly trained Scrum Masters.
By decreasing these expectations, we normalized the average performance of Scrum Masters and the “Scrum Event host / Jira updater / team admin” anti pattern. Which will lead the recruiters / hiring managers to wonder “Why would I hire this SM for 750€ a day when this one looks decent and asks for 550€ a day?* ”
Direct impact : the more experienced Agilists need to protect their role and claim it back to not get replaced by cheaper (and less competent) than them. In addition to highlighting their own USP’s, discouraging new people to join the party could be a way.
This same process has been seen with tattoo artists a few years ago, and with photographers a few years before when the “I have a 1000$ DSLR camera so I’m a pro” people came in.
Happy to be challenged !
* Day rates here are just an example. It can definitely vary based on the market evolutions, the regions etc.
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Hello Erik,
When we look at the core of the Agile software Movement (Manifesto).
The movement was : a) to re-establish trust towards the people that would buying and or using the software, the software industry was building - because we had a bad reputation of delivery b) to protect the people that was building the software (less < 60 hours a week of work)
Meaning delivering value = developing the right thing (business value) X Quality X Efficiency.
When the value is zero, the process (scrum) doesn't matter, even when you are the best scrum master of the world.
Sendly, the 9th principle of the Agile Manifesto was about Quality. '' Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility''. This principle is constant underrated, and much more important than following a good scrum process by an excellent scrum master.
When the quality is zero, the result is again zero.
And for me, the process itself comes om the 3rd place like my formula. Important, but not crucial. And definitely when you have the right teams, knowing how to take ownership.
And like in all jobs, craftsmanship need to be paid fairly. Also, for scrum masters that brings real value in efficiency.
Benny