Agile has changed

Introduction

Agile was light, free, breezy. It let developers take a deep breath and do what they felt was right. It was liberating. Teams could self-organise with analysts, coders, programmers, trainers, designers, testers, support staff all being skills rather than individuals in different teams in the hierarchy.

But agile has changed. Tobias Meyer was right about certification and professional bodies: it is just going back to how it was. Lots of 'managers that are not called 'managers', lots of performance metrics to measure people, new interventions from different angles instead of a simple rhythm of plan, execute, reflect.

We now have:

• Squads. These were what we used to call the development team. They were self-organising, responsible for their own development and research into methods. They were empowered and trusted to do the right thing because they knew how.
• Chapters. Before agile there were teams of programmers and testers and so on. In agile there were self-organising teams of people using the skills that were needed to get the job done. Now agile has matured, there are teams of programmers and testers and so on, but they are called Chapters.
• Chapter Leads who are responsible for the personal development and performance of those with a particular skill. So it is the staff manager of the programmers or testers or whatever. That's how we used to do things, before agile.
• Agile coaches. It used to be that developers would read the Agile Manifesto, say "That's how we should do it" and got on with it. Now they have to be managed in How To Do Agile. That's not what agile was about.

• Tribes
• Tribe leadership
• Product Owners