Faux Agile, Real Problems — And a Path Forward
You’ve probably heard the phrase “Agile is dead” recently. Personally, I don’t believe that’s true.
Agile isn’t dead, it’s evolving. I believe we’re beginning to move away from what Martin Fowler called the Agile Industrial Complex; the commercialisation and rigid dogma that has held teams back for far too long. I think the future heralds a positive return to a focus on what truly matters: people, collaboration, and adaptability.
In this article, I want to explore what the future of Agile might really look like, beyond clickbait phrases like “Agile is Dead’. I’ll focus on the realities of working life for those of us leading in tech and product development, and how we might shape a more human, adaptive path forward.
I wrote about the Agile Industrial Complex last year and spoke about it again as a panellist at a recent Agile event. It got me reflecting once more on the future of Agile, and our role as leaders in shaping what comes next.
Martin Fowler described what he termed ‘faux-agile’ in his keynote at Agile Australia back in 2018:
“On the surface, the world of agile software development is bright, since it is now mainstream. But the reality is troubling, because much of what is done is faux-agile, disregarding agile's values and principles. The three main challenges we should focus on are: fighting the Agile Industrial Complex and its habit of imposing process upon teams, raising the importance of technical excellence, and organizing our teams around products (rather than projects). Despite the problems, the community's great strength is its ability to learn and adapt, tackling problems that we original manifesto authors didn't imagine.”
Misapplication and Complication
When an organisation takes a by-the-book approach to implementing a specific framework, the conversation often becomes framed as Agile vs. Waterfall leaving no room for nuance.
But real agility requires nuance.
The unique context of an organisation, its product, customer needs, and technology landscape demands an approach that focuses on value; customer value, product value, and people value.
A rigid, dogmatic adherence to a single framework is the antithesis of what software delivery truly needs.
This kind of misapplication has also led to a needless over-complication of what it means to work in an agile way. We’ve become so focused on applying tools and techniques that we’ve reduced agility to a checkbox exercise in doing not being.
Agile lacks agility
The original Agile Manifesto, written in 2001, was designed for the software development challenges of its time. Nearly 25 years later, many organisations that have “implemented agile” have drifted far from its original values, while also failing to adapt to changing work environments, evolving customer needs, and rapid technological advancement.
Separating ‘Agile’ from development
One of the most concerning trends is the growing gap between those doing the work and those supporting the work. If a Scrum Master, Product Owner, Delivery Lead, or Agile Coach doesn’t have a solid grasp of the actual work being delivered, how can they meaningfully support the team?
I’m not exactly a technical person, but working in tech consultancies, I’ve always seen it as my responsibility to understand the technical architecture and ecosystem my engineers are working within. My role has often been to serve as a conduit: helping my clients to translate business needs into customer-centric solutions, coaching on agile ways of working, and helping navigate the complexity of delivery.
In technology-agnostic environments, and amid constant tech evolution, it’s our collective responsibility to attempt to get under the hood of the software we’re helping to deliver, whether we sit client-side or in consultancy.
I’ve seen the gulf between “tech” and “agile” widen in some organisations, a clear sign that we’ve lost sight of the manifesto’s core intent: to bring people together across disciplines. The fact that this disconnection still persists in many large enterprises is further evidence of how agility is often misunderstood, misapplied, or reduced to roles and rituals.
Once Bitten, Twice Shy
As we come full circle to the original vision of the Agile Alliance, the future of agility lies in rejecting one-size-fits-all approaches. Experienced Agile Coaches know this instinctively.
The real shift needs to happen at the organisational level, embracing the idea that Scrum, SAFe, or any other framework isn’t something you simply buy or implement like a project. Agility is not a plug-and-play solution that will fix all your problems.
Unfortunately, many organisations only come to this realisation after a poor experience, often due to a rigid or superficial implementation by an external consultant or partner. My hope is that these experiences don’t lead to rejecting Agile altogether, but instead to a deeper understanding that true Business Agility is contextual.
All frameworks have potential value, but only when they’re thoughtfully adapted to fit the people, culture, and the complexity of the environment they’re being used in.
All is not lost — the ‘Agile 2’ movement
It’s human nature to simplify concepts , and to slap a catchy name on them, so let’s talk about the Agile 2 movement.
Agile 2 is a diverse group of professionals who came together to write a book and define a new set of values and principles. Their work aims to address the widespread misuse and misunderstanding of Agile in practice.
As they put it:
“The reality is that Agile ideas are being used in pretty much every domain, and for every situation that involves multiple people, because Agile is fundamentally about how people work together.”
You can read more about their scope here: Agile 2 – Scope
What the authors have done is articulate what many of us agile veterans have known for a while, that Agile has stagnated, and a new wave of understanding is overdue.
What excites me most is the diversity of perspective in this group. It includes male and female software engineers, data scientists, agile HR experts, coaches, product managers, UX designers, and delivery leads. They represent a truly global community spanning Australia, India, the U.S., Europe, and Asia, coming together to champion a more inclusive and contextual future for agility.
Agile 2 describes the following values:
Thoughtfulness and prescription
Outcomes and outputs
Individuals and teams
Business understanding and technical understanding
Individual empowerment and good leadership
Adaptability and planning
What really stood out from this self-described ‘second iteration of agile’ was the emphasis on human and leadership diversity. We work with quiet thinkers, deep workers, people from different cultures and with different communication styles. Not everyone thrives in a face-to-face workshop or speaks up in a loud retro.
For me, agile has always been about collaborative problem-solving. To do that well, you need:
The right tools, Diverse minds, Shared purpose and visualisation systems that help teams stay aligned and adaptive.
What does the future hold?
If we're serious about evolving agility, then the future must be:
Organised around product value, not project plans
Led by diverse thinkers and empowered teams
Built on psychological safety, experimentation, and adaptability
Powered by data-informed decisions and collaborative tech
Rooted in culture change and contextual agility, not frameworks alone
I’ll follow up this article with some deep-dives into each of these areas, with real-world examples of how we can support organisations in evolving agility.
These aren’t just ideas, they’re crucial for any organisation that wants to move from siloed functions to sustainable, adaptive delivery. Agile may be evolving, but its future depends on how courageously we evolve with it.
Final Thoughts
Agile isn’t dead. But the version of Agile many organisations cling to , rigid, commodified, imposed, probably should be. The future belongs to those willing to reconnect with agility’s core:
people, adaptability, and purpose-driven collaboration.
Emerging technologies will absolutely help, but only if we first get clear on what kind of culture we’re asking them to support.
As someone who’s spent over a decade in agile delivery and leadership, I’ve made the mistakes, lived the lip service and now choose to coach from a place of honesty and empathy. If we want real change, it starts not with buying another model, but with asking better questions of ourselves, our leaders, and our teams.
The future of agility is human. Let’s not forget that.
References
Video of Martin Fowler’s Keynote at Agile Australia 2018
Transcript of Martin Fowler’s Keynote at Agile Australia 2018
‘The Agile Industrial Complex’ by Daniel Mezick
‘Anti-Agile: The Agile Industrial Complex’ by Rebecca Hudson
A Little Disclaimer:
My words are my own. Whilst Chat GPT and other AI tools are amazing resources to check my grammar, suggest better formatting and provide catchy headlines when the brain fog sets in, it cannot provide verifiable data without substantiation. It cannot replace experience or the passions and inspirations which fuel our professional lives. Any data and trends I have included have been substantiated via the sources I reference. The insights given in this article are based on my +22 years professional experience, my +7 years in senior leadership roles in The UAE and UK, and my own wide-ranging research. If this article has resonated with you please feel free to comment and share, feedback is welcome and appreciated.