Why Business Isn't Agile
Most discussions about Agile begin and end with debates over whether it’s the best way to build software. The bedrock principles of Agile explicitly subsume all other priorities to the production of working code.
However, when we’re discussing software development in the context of custom business applications, the reality is that most businesses aren’t interested in being world-class software development shops. Business users tend to view IT as a cost centre, not as a source of competitive advantage. The goal of many businesses is to reduce the time and money invested in information technology. They don’t value working code. While they value the flexibility Agile promises, Agile brings with it many negatives from the business perceptive—the requirement for extensive user involvement, the challenge of implementing rapid decision-making, decentralization of authority, difficulties with long-term planning, and a tendency to emphasize the short-term over the long view.
Many of the principles Agile embraces are ones that have been advocated in the business world for decades, but businesses aren’t Agile and many of them never will be. By understanding what the pressures are that have kept businesses from adopting an Agile worldview, Agile practitioners can better understand why business stakeholders might actively or passively resist Agile, and potentially find ways to help Agile development work better in a non-Agile world.