Scrum and Agile seem to be the current management fad for the wider software industry. Their focus on short-term goals and business requirements are good for certain situations, but may be damaging in the long run.

(Via +Paul Bone 's Twitter)

I've now read a few of this guy's articles.  I'm very impressed with them.

Thanks! I'll have to take a look at some of the other ones.
At first I was a bit scared off by the page length, then realized that 90% was the comment section.

Aaaaaaack beware beware beware.

Make up your own mind; this guy says things that sound insightful and sensible, but he has a history of authoritatively speaking for cultures and organizations in ways that deeply misrepresent what most people would regard as the truth.

By all means read what he has to say but think very critically!

+Daniel Egnor Thanks for the heads up. Since posting the article I've had a few other people issue similar words of caution.

What I do like about this article is that it does highlight several valid criticisms of agile - that it's very mechanical and focused on short-term goals, but agile also has it's merits (a focus on rapid iteration rather than BDUF, good code hygiene and refactoring and collaborative coding).

What I really would like to see in an article is a comparison to other development methodologies which covers where and when they're appropriate. I suspect that if you talk to the original proponents of agile, they'll suggest it's a little more subtle than a one-size-fits-all process for all teams and projects. Much like selecting a development tool, you want to some thought put into whether this the right process for your situation.

Well, "Agile" is a philosophical alignment toward iterative development rather than preplanned schedules, not a specific methodology. Saying "is Agile right for us?" is like saying "is Programming Language right for us?"... someone will have to say "uh, which one?".

Also, there aren't many named software development methodologies that don't come somewhere under the "agile" umbrella. (Good luck finding an active proponent of "Waterfall".) I guess there's these: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Plan-driven_software_development#Overview_of_Plan-driven_methodologies ...

Well, at least they're trying. It could be worse: one of our teams is on a 3 month development cycle and is still building up mountains of technical debt. And they still call it "agile".