It’s not the methods that are Agile, it’s the people
I&#x27;m a big advocate of Agile but at the same time I&#x27;m leery of joining teams that say they do Agile.  Why?  Because they usually mean, &quot;We do standups and burndown charts and that&#x27;s it.&quot;  It&#x27;s cargo-cult Agile, at best, and micromanagement by story point, at worst.<p>Football teams don&#x27;t do standups saying &quot;I will run X yards&quot;.  Each and every player on the team<p>-knows precisely what the objective is<p>-knows precisely what his&#x2F;her role is and is capable of fulfilling it<p>-knows what s&#x2F;he needs to communicate to other teammates for them to fulfill their roles and does so promptly<p>-is capable of assessing what needs to be done next given the current situation on the field without having to be told and takes on that task on their own initiative<p>-doesn&#x27;t have anyone breathing down their neck saying &quot;A point must be scored by X:XX on the clock or else!&quot; regardless of whether the tactical situation makes it possible<p>Together, such a team functions like a well-oiled machine.  _That_ is what Agile is trying to teach.  But more often than not, few, if any of the personnel or business conditions are met to make it possible and so it&#x27;s a painful, miserable charade for all involved.<p>I have seen Agile work exactly once in my career; it&#x27;s absolutely beautiful when it does.