Agile Is About "Uncovering"

We are never done uncovering.

In honor of today’s 25th anniversary of the Agile Manifesto, I’d like to remind everyone that the document's first sentence is: “We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it…” The critical word in that sentence is “uncovering.” They didn’t say “uncovered,” which would mean there’s no more work to do. Instead, they are talking about an active and ongoing activity: uncovering.

Nowhere in the Manifesto does it tell you how to work. There are no sprints, backlogs, standups (or any other meeting), SMs, POs, PBIs, tickets, or any of the other barnacles that have accreted over time, often added by people with suspect agendas (like selling certificates). The emphasis is not on specific things to do, because those things change as we uncover different and better ways to work.

The single practice that is mandated is: “the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.” We are constantly improving how we work (uncovering), which, to me, suggests that we add, remove, and change things, and we make those changes based on observation and assessment.

This attitude is particularly important when a radical new tool, such as an LLM, emerges. We improve “by doing it.” We use the new thing, then decide based on our experience. We don’t just sit back and say it doesn’t work because it’s not what we’re doing now, or because some moron has hyped it too much. Agility is scary. It requires constant personal experimentation with new ways of working. Some of those things work, some don’t, but you don’t know until you try.

The next important word is “ways,” plural. I’ve never seen any good come from everyone marching in lockstep to a specific process or framework. At best, that uniformity adds friction. At worst, it adds dysfunction. Every team, every story, every situation, is unique and requires unique ways of working. Create a set of values and principles, and as long as people adhere to those, you’re golden. The people who do the work are in the best position to figure out how to do the work. Of course, control-obsessed people high up in an organization hate that because they can’t control it. They call it “chaos.” Replacing control for trust is an essential element of becoming “Agile,” however.

Finally, the end of that initial sentence is “…and helping others do it.” We improve as a community through collaboration and communication. That can be fraught. E.g., the #NoEstimates tag began when Woody Zuill posted that his team had just finished a successful project without estimates and wanted to share their experience. Instead of “that’s interesting, tell me more,” the reactions were often hateful attacks that came down to “It’s not possible to work without estimates, so you’re an incompetent, irresponsible liar.” But it is possible. It did work. That was the whole point. Working is the starting point of the discussion. Your comments don’t hold much weight unless you’ve tried it. If you don’t know how to try it, talk to the people who have. Conversation and experimentation fill in the details. That’s how you learn and improve. That’s Agile.