Agile does Not work
Agile isn&#x27;t a thing you do, and it isn&#x27;t a thing that works or doesn&#x27;t work. Its very little more than the recognition that what works is highly specific to the group and task, coupled with specific warnings against practices that were commonly and harmfully adopted as one-size-fits-all  straightjackets at the time the manifesto was written.<p>Particular methodologies -- like Scrum, which is often conflated with Agile -- may or may not work (and, more particularly, may or may not be ideal for certain classes of project), but that&#x27;s a very different issue.<p>OTOH, I think that Agile has a critical problem which is revealed by the fact that people confuse it with various methodologies (particularly Scrum) -- it is so nebulous that no one actually considers the manifesto to be a thing, and everyone just accepts whatever canned, one-size-fits-all methodology some book or consultant sold them (usually Scrum or a derivative, though I remember when people who said &quot;Agile&quot; were more likely to really mean &quot;XP&quot;) is what Agile is, which is fundamentally the kind of mindset Agile was a reaction <i>against</i>.<p>Because Agile -- the manifesto itself -- contains no clear actionable recommendations, just value statements, everyone with a concrete methodology to sell once Agile became a popular buzzword just decided to sell their methodology <i>as</i> Agile.