Download to read offline
Uploaded byAgile ME
Agile at the Crossroads: Navigating a Post-Framework World by Matthew Philip
In an era of increasing complexity, Agile frameworks have become rigid constraints rather than adaptive ways of working. This keynote challenges practitioners and leaders to transcend certification-driven methodologies and rediscover the true essence of agility: responding to complexity with human creativity, complexity thinking and genuine value delivery. Looking at real-life examples, we'll dive deep into why some Agile approaches are failing, how big companies are systematically crushing innovation, and what it truly takes to help organizations reimagine agile as a dynamic, generative approach to navigating unpredictable landscapes.
More Related Content
Similar to Agile at the Crossroads: Navigating a Post-Framework World by Matthew Philip
![[Slideshare] Cracking The Agile Culture Code](https://cdn.slidesharecdn.com/ss_thumbnails/njdnjabnqoadyjouifzt-cracking-the-agile-culture-code-revised-220707105722-11cb8520-thumbnail.jpg?width=640&height=640&fit=bounds)
Agile at the Crossroads: Navigating a Post-Framework World by Matthew Philip
- 1. April 10, 2025- Dubai, UAE Agile at the Crossroads Navigating a Post-Framework World
- 2.
- 3. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Today’s Session 1. Where we’vebeen 2. Some possible explanations 3. A post-framework toolkit
- 4.
- 5. Every great cause beginsas a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket. Eric Hoffer, The Temper of Our Time
- 6. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Begins as amovement… “Conversational” “Adaptive” “Lightweight” “Essential” “Lean” “AGILE!”
- 7.
- 8. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Eventually degenerates intoa racket. Agility Health Big Consultants Agility industrial complex SAFe Agile Playbooks
- 9. The Agile IndustrialComplex imposing methods on people is an absolute travesty. Martin Fowler
- 10. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Tales of fourtravesties Influential US Bank Global Pharmaceutical Global Consumer Electronics Large US Financial Services “Agile” investm ent ● SAFe-by-the Book ● Installed by Big Consultants ● Agile “Center of Excellence” ● Agile Transformation according to Big Consultant playbooks ● Agile Coaches ● Agile “Center of Excellence” ● Three+ Agile Transformations ● Ubiquitous Scrum ● Agile Coaches ● Agile “Center of Excellence” ● Three+ Agile Transformations ● Ubiquitous Scrum ● SAFe-light ● 50+ Agile Coaches ● High scores on “Agile Maturity” Outcom es Longer delivery times, lost contracts, layoffs New digital product 1.0 never even delivered after 1 year, $5 mil. New Product Introductions regularly late by average of 18 months Time from concept to market: 2.5 years
- 12. Most frameworks teachuseful things. They simply are blind to context, are ignorant of human change and entice us to cede control to them.
- 13. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Recent history ofagile 1990s Lightweight Methods lightweight software development methods evolved in reaction to the prevailing heavyweight methods (often referred to collectively as waterfall) 2001 Spotify Model Henrik Kniberg and Anders Ivarsson publish the so-called Spotify model published, promptly misappropriated. 2012 Manifesto The Agile Alliance, published the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. 2007-09 Quest for Acceptance Martin Fowler (2018): “Back 10 years ago, the challenge was people taking agile at all seriously” 2018 Agile Layoffs Companies like Capital One lay off “agile” roles; others follow 2024 Agile Alliance joins PMI On Dec. 31, Agile Alliance entered into a strategic partnership with the Project Management Institute (PMI), and we will now refer to our organization as PMI Agile Alliance. ME Agile Summit! 2025 HBR Cover “Agile at Scale” The New New Product Development Game Groundbreaking article by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka 1986 2020s We are here!
- 14. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Management (and Consultants)Abhor a Vacuum: “Post-Agile” Frameworks Product Model OKRs Vibe coding Chat-Oriented Programming (CHOP) Maturity assessments
- 15. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Is Agile Dead?Explanations ● Agile has “won” ● Agile has failed ● Agile has morphed ● Agile “by any other name” ● The question is moot, since AI is taking over the world!
- 16. PART 2: WHY? SOMEPOSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS
- 17.
- 18. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM 2. Organizational-management culture isoften incompatible with agility.
- 19. But we didhave an opinion about the first one: which is “Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools.” Martin Fowler
- 21.
- 22. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Values Practices follow Outcomes follow Culturefollows Culture wins Culture speaks more loudly than practices
- 23. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Structure Bonus system Goals Rewards Punishments Team design Information flow Careerpaths Policies Measurement What is the structure saying? Values Practices follow Outcomes follow Culture follows
- 24. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Kanban Culture Model Whatare the beliefs that inform the values that lead to the structure? Values Practices follow Outcomes follow Culture follows Structure
- 25. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Example: Theory Xand Theory Y Beliefs Value Structures The average worker is lazy, venal and stupid. Employee goals and organizational goals are in opposition. You didn't want them to decide how to work but somebody else, somebody who was a more intelligent and educated. ● The people who are doing the work should not decide how to do it: We make them work in x framework. ● It should be a separate group of planners who does this: We will train people in special roles and designate them as leaders. ● Everyone needs to work in the same way. The average worker is naturally intrinsically motivated and thrives when his or her basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are satisfied. Organizations can fulfill these needs by providing people with clear strategic direction, meaningful feedback, a sense of connection to their work and colleagues, and space to work in a way that suits them. ● The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self- organizing teams. ● At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
- 26. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Example: Theory Xand Theory Y Beliefs Value Structures The average worker is lazy, venal and stupid. Employee goals and organizational goals are in opposition. You didn't want them to decide how to work but somebody else, somebody who was a more intelligent and educated. ● The people who are doing the work should not decide how to do it: We make them work in x framework. ● It should be a separate group of planners who does this: We will train people in special roles and designate them as leaders. ● Everyone needs to work in the same way. The average worker is naturally intrinsically motivated and thrives when his or her basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are satisfied. Organizations can fulfill these needs by providing people with clear strategic direction, meaningful feedback, a sense of connection to their work and colleagues, and space to work in a way that suits them. ● The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self- organizing teams. ● At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
- 27.
- 28. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Revolutionary Change, Never-EndingTroughs of Despair
- 29. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM 4. Frameworks havebecome synonymous with agile
- 30.
- 31. Agile is simply: waysof working informed by the Agile Manifesto
- 32. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM 5. Ignorance ofcomplexity
- 33.
- 34. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Most of ourwork is novel Complex Unique Emergent practice Chaos Novel practice Complicated Repetitive Good practice Clear Best practice Confused Sweet spot for agile Sweet spot for lean Governing Constraints Enabling Constraints
- 35.
- 36. Martin Fowler If you'redoing Extreme Programming the same way as you were doing it a year ago, you're no longer doing Extreme Programming.
- 37. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Product Manager? Change Management? DeliveryLead? Organizational Refactorer? (What is that?!) Where to turn? Learning and Development/ Training?
- 38. Part 3: A Post-FrameworkToolkit
- 39. In times ofchange learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. Eric Hoffer
- 40. There’s going tobe significantly less demand for trying to get their folks to follow a framework better. Wondering whether to learn Scrum or Kanban is like thinking about what side of the Titanic would be better to be on. It won’t matter. You need another skill set than teaching people how to follow a framework. Al Shalloway
- 41. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Antidotes to FrameworkFatigue 1. Beliefs instead of Practices 2. Guidebooks instead of Playbooks 3. Complexity instead of Complicated, but… 4. Simplify instead of Decorate 5. Yokoten instead of Standardization 6. Flow instead of Friction 7. Invite instead of Inflict 8. Create instead of Coordinate* * credit: Hiten Sha
- 42.
- 43. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM 2. Guidebooks insteadof Playbooks
- 44. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM 3. Complexity insteadof Complicated
- 45. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Most of ourwork is novel; work accordingly Complex Unique Emergent practice Chaos Novel practice Complicated Repetitive Good practice Clear Best practice Confused ● Make decisions in situations of high uncertainty. ● “Allow ideas that are not useful to fail in small, contained and tolerable ways.” —Dave Snowden ● “What didn’t work three years ago may work today.” —Dave Wegan
- 46. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM 4. Simplify insteadof Decorate
- 47. Everything should be assimple as it can be, but not simpler. Albert Einstein* * probably
- 48.
- 49. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM 5. Yokoten insteadof Standardization
- 50. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Problems with centralizedstandards We need everyone to standardize on sprints and points so that we can compare apples to apples… But don't worry, we're not going to compare teams.
- 51. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Jason Yip Problems withcentralized standards
- 52. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Yokoten: Bridging (NotCopy-Pasting)
- 53. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM 6. Flow insteadof Friction
- 54. Confusion, waste, andfriction are the leading causes of transformation failures. Flow Engineering book
- 55.
- 56. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM 8. Create insteadof Coordinate MAKE NOT MANAGE
- 57. MATTPHILIP.WORDPRESS.COM Antidotes to FrameworkFatigue 1. Beliefs instead of Practices 2. Guidebooks instead of Playbooks 3. Complexity instead of Complicated, but… 4. Simplify instead of Decorate 5. Yokoten instead of Standardization 6. Flow instead of Friction 7. Invite instead of Inflict 8. Create instead of Coordinate* * credit: Hiten Sha)
- 58. April 10, 2025- Dubai, UAE Thank You!
- 59.