For people who have embraced the Agile philosophy and who are seeing this erosion occur right now the cut is deep… For once there seemed to be a process that aided development rather than inhibit it, provided an environment which was conducive to technical team members and identified waste in software development much quicker than many of the other dev processes.Now, true agile practitioners are faced with a bigger dilemma - how does one succinctly and intelligently convey to these Agile Impostors that they are not really Agile? How does one analyze the processes currently in place (processes that claim to be Agile) and empirically state that they are or not Agile?

Software Process Audits and Process Consultant teams can probably address some of these issues and enable an organization with metrics to improve and rise on the Agile ladder (is there one..?). Is this going to save Agile?

I think not! The entire idea of process audits and providing organizations with a road map towards continuous improvement etc. reeks of CMM/ISO prose. And I can almost see individual auditors running about the place at say Ford - and helping Ford’s IT department become Agile … (stop and think about that for a second - Ford = Agile) - What a load of shit!

Anyways, My opinion which I can state very unapologetically on my blog :) is that true Agile Companies will find their own sweet spot process which will embrace Agile Philosophies - no amount of training will ever get your organization to become Agile.

It is really a question of Philosophy - and hence its about people. Hire the right people - people that can embrace Agile or are already agile practitioners and place them in a separate department (call it the Over-Achievers Department of Fun or whatever) and give that department your toughest projects - then sit back and watch them deliver. Then tell the world that in your organization you have one group that is Agile.