Agile Product Development: How to Design Innovative Products That Create Customer Value

CHAPTER 1

Preamble

Back to Agility

… And, unfortunately, I think the time has proven me right. The word “agile” has been subverted to the point where it is effectively meaningless, and what passes for an agile community seems to be largely an arena for consultants and vendors to hawk services and products.

So I think it is time to retire the word “Agile.”

…We’ve lost the word agile. Let’s try to hang on to agility. Let’s keep it meaningful, and let’s protect it from those who would take the soul of our ideas in order to sell it back to us.

—Dave Thomas, Agile Manifesto Signatory, Keynote address¹ at Agile India 2014, Bangalore

Dave was not just ranting when he delivered his keynote talk, which was actually his first one since co-authoring the ...