Agile Software Development needs to separate itself from Scrum. And, Scrum needs to quit doing agile such a disservice.

I’ve seen it a few times now where agile practices, get the root cause treatment for flailing methodologies. I hear way too often “we’re an agile shop; we do Scrum.” And, I’m also seeing more and more organizations attempting to apply Scrum to CMM-centric projects.

First Step: Remove agile from methodologies. Agile practices should stand alone, as simple actions taken by individuals, teams, and stakeholders in support of any given methodology. [Good agile practices won’t preclude process success, but can prevent many process pitfalls. Practices can make {closer to} perfect {software} - but, process can not.]

Second Step: Accept that Scrum is not agile, in of itself. [Just because the process is broken down to more iterative steps does not imply agile anything. In fact it could be concluded that the real Agile says they aren’t related at all: “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”.]

Obviously, there’s a lot more to be said here. I’m intentionally keeping this short…with the hopes that I will continue the thought in subsequent, more focused, posts.