Why agile could fail in enterprises

As organizations continue to roll out agile it is concerning the weight that internal communities put on the process vs the need to adjust culture to play with the process. No single process will fix your problem. The hype of this new trends gets interpreted into “how agile will save the world” and it is important before going all in we need to to look at the entire chain not the first few links to see what make it successful. I have observed a behaviors over the last few years that if attention isn't given it could limit success of introducing agile into your company.

Old timers

The typical average years of service in a large organization is rather high which means folks have observed change cycles. They have gone through many trends that have promised to improved process. While many suspect it is there unwillingness to change, it might just be their attitude of “been there done that” with over promise and limited success. How will you be able to gain trust one more time to turn the ship in the right direction?

The yes’ums

Middle management is similar to sales where many have a tendency to say yes before validating something is possible, having a priority conversation or discuss the amount of effort it takes to get something done. Who is barking the loudest is typically how work gets ranked. How will product owner and scrum masters help drive the conversations?

Date driven vs feature driven

There are two ways to build products, date driven or feature driven, typically you can't have both or something has to give. Can business partners get comfortable with not knowing a date, will enterprise marketing departments get more streamlined where long lead times aren't required before launch.

Ability to wear multiple hats

A theme in agile is about working together to get something done during a certain time period. This might mean a business analyst or developer needs to jump in and test if QA is running behind to complete work in a sprint. Can a culture of clearly outlined disciples pull up their sleeves and getter done?