Originally published on LinkedIn on 28-Dec-2016 (Agile and the Unwelcome Change)

He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. ~Harold Wilson

“The only thing that is constant is change”, said Heraclitus, a 500 B.C. Greek philosopher. How true!!! The world is not the same as it was in 500 B.C. It has changed. Has it changed for the better? I bet, it has. Everything changes. Some changes are evolutionary, while others are revolutionary. But the fact is, without change, survival will be at stake.

Decades ago, the software industry adopted a sequential, waterfall approach to software development, which probably made sense back then. However, with the changing dynamics of the market and technology, new products, new services and new ways of thinking, the Agile approach to software development is slowly taking center-stage.

As with every other change, this change has brought forth various concerns, issues, limitations, constraints and heart burns. This change also has divided the software development world into three categories of people: 

• Fanatic Opposers
• Whole-hearted Embracers and
• Reluctant Implementers

The most dangerous of these three, in my opinion, are the Reluctant Implementers, who sit on the fence and want to ride the wave of change without changing themselves. Unfortunately, this category of people is, by far, the largest participants for Agile adoption. Their modus operandi is to pay lip service to Agile practices and resist imbibing Agile in its entirety. This is mainly due to the below factors:

1. People: The core of the Agile philosophy. Due to heavy reliance on processes in the traditional software development approaches, we somehow forgot that without people being an integral part, any process is a waste of time and resources. And this applies even more to knowledge work. Can we automate everything in software development so as to get rid of people involvement? I believe we haven’t reached that point yet. When people are kept out of the knowledge work equation, the results are anybody’s guess. But pre-defined processes are so ingrained in our psyche that we fail to see the importance of improvement in those processes with active involvement of people.
2. Thinking: The key differentiator between human and other species. The beauty of the Agile philosophy is that it nudges and coaxes us to think. Think about the problem. Think about different ways to arrive at the solution. Think about the implications of a miscalculated step. Think about improvements. Think about how to make people’s lives easier and better. And above all, think about the above aspects continuously. But the process world has made us so resistant to apply our thinking minds, that we hardly see the impact of not thinking enough to do knowledge work.
3. Contracts: The bane and the boon of the industry. Contracts are necessary. Contracts provide us with an agreement between two parties involved in any kind of work. Any process-centric approach works wonderfully with detailed and immaculately drawn contracts. The same detailed and immaculately drawn contracts fail miserably with knowledge work. Wonder why? Knowledge work needs an active involvement from people who think continuously. With every small change in the environment, the previously outlined approach changes. These changes often result in completely different outcomes than envisaged earlier. But we are so tightly bound by contracts that we force people to adhere to the contract clauses instead of thinking of beneficial outcomes. 
4. Tools: The fools and jesters of the court. Ouch! This was indeed below the belt! Why do we use tools? To make our lives easier? To help us carry out mundane tasks that typically do not need any active thinking? Or to submit ourselves to the tool’s capabilities and work according to how the tool is designed? Agreed, some tools have a lot of intelligence built in, that help us work more efficiently. But do you think that using a tool absolves us from thinking? If I decide to hammer a nail in a piece of wood, the hammer and nail won’t work by themselves. I’ll have to think and make them work as per my wishes. See, it needs some thinking to accomplish even a simple mechanical job. But we are so used to being slaves to tools that we take them for granted to solve all our problems.

Even when some organizations claim to be Agile, they hardly allow their people to think beyond processes, contracts and tools. For such organizations, change is unwelcome. They conveniently forget that ‘welcoming change’ is one of the core tenets of Agile.

So, where does all this leave us? Simply, in knowledge work, we need people who think. People who continuously think about improvements, rather than follow a defined process. People who continuously think about the outcome, without being bogged down by contracts. People who continuously think how best a given tool can be utilized for their work, without being driven by the tool. And all this is a BIG CHANGE from how we used to work. And when we embrace and welcome this change, we can definitely say “We Are Agile!”

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author’s current or previous employers.