Fragile Agile development model is a symptom, not a source, of project failure
Opinion You've got to be light on your toes to keep up with Agile. Some say it's the inherently right way to do software. Others call it a cult, overblown and misleading. One way to tell would be to compare Agile and non-Agile project success rates, and that's just what consultancy Engprax did.
The result: at least according to the study, Agile projects fail exactly 268 percent more often. Not 267 percent or 269 percent, and how can you argue with precision.
This would seem to move the needle towards a perception of the methodology as a type of culthood, and here Agile hasn't always helped itself. The basic idea is that software projects are too complex to manage by creating a precise plan and sticking to it, so lots of feedback and ability to change has to be built in along the way. Agility, in other words. Sounds sensible enough, but the creators of the idea spiced it up by writing the Agile Manifesto.
Manifestos are manifestly dangerous. They start out by describing how a new way of doing things can solve old problems, which is often necessary. Once the new ways are in place, though, the nature of the problems is going to change – and manifestos rarely change to match. There is much irony in the Agile Manifesto preaching pragmatism over prescription and openness to change over rigid adherence to overspecific plans.
