Editing Agile software development (section)

== Criticism ==
Agile practices have been cited as potentially inefficient in large organizations and certain types of development.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1380615|first=Craig|last=Larman|author2=Bas Vodde|title=Top Ten Organizational Impediments to Large-Scale Agile Adoption |publisher=InformIT |date=2009-08-13}}</ref> Many organizations believe that agile software development methodologies are too extreme and adopt a hybrid approach<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.binfire.com/blog/2016/07/hybrid-project-management-methodology//|title=Introduction to Hybrid project management|work=Collaboration Corner |date=20 July 2016}}</ref> that mixes elements of agile software development and plan-driven approaches.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Barlow|first=Jordan B.|author2=Justin Scott Giboney|author3=Mark Jeffery Keith|author4=David W. Wilson|author5=Ryan M. Schuetzler|author6=Paul Benjamin Lowry|author7= Anthony Vance|title=Overview and Guidance on Agile Development in Large Organizations|journal=Communications of the Association for Information Systems|year=2011|volume=29|issue=1|pages=25–44|doi=10.17705/1CAIS.02902|doi-access=free}}</ref> Some methods, such as [[dynamic systems development method]] (DSDM) attempt this in a disciplined way, without sacrificing fundamental principles.

The increasing adoption of agile practices has also been criticized as being a [[management fad]] that simply describes existing good practices under new jargon, promotes a ''one size fits all'' mindset towards development strategies, and wrongly emphasizes method over results.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.batimes.com/kupe-kupersmith/agile-is-a-fad.html|title = Agile is a Fad|last = Kupersmith|first = Kupe| date=4 July 2011 }}</ref>

[[Alistair Cockburn]] organized a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the ''Manifesto for Agile Software Development'' in Snowbird, Utah on 12 February 2011, gathering some 30+ people who had been involved at the original meeting and since. A list of about 20 [[elephant in the room|elephants in the room]] ('undiscussable' agile topics/issues) were collected, including aspects: the alliances, failures and limitations of agile software development practices and context (possible causes: commercial interests, decontextualization, no obvious way to make progress based on failure, limited objective evidence, cognitive biases and reasoning fallacies), politics and culture.<ref name="TeenAgile">{{cite web|url=http://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-teenage-crisis|first=Philippe|last=Kruchten|title=Agile's Teenage Crisis? |publisher=InfoQ |date=2011-06-20}}</ref> As [[Philippe Kruchten]] wrote:

{{Blockquote
|text=The agile movement is in some ways a bit like a teenager: very self-conscious, checking constantly its appearance in a mirror, accepting few criticisms, only interested in being with its peers, rejecting en bloc all wisdom from the past, just because it is from the past, adopting fads and new jargon, at times cocky and arrogant. But I have no doubts that it will mature further, become more open to the outside world, more reflective, and therefore, more effective.
|author=Philippe Kruchten<ref name="TeenAgile" />}}

The "Manifesto" may have had a negative impact on higher education management and leadership, where it suggested to administrators that slower traditional and deliberative processes should be replaced with more "nimble" ones. The concept rarely found acceptance among university faculty.<ref>Richard Utz, "Against Adminspeak," [https://www.chronicle.com/article/Against-Adminspeak/249047?key=hsZMErKIgGC276GPIxqHkSP5jbKbjZo7inN_XME_7x91_awBNokn0OtP-fqf8M6Ic0s4X016U01jTmlpaGVtSElwWjVONE9iRjI5UW9BdldZNVlTVEotMUVyVQ Chronicle of Higher Education], 24 June 2020.</ref>

Another criticism is that in many ways, agile management and traditional management practices end up being in opposition to one another. A common criticism of this practice is that the time spent attempting to learn and implement the practice is too costly, despite potential benefits. A transition from traditional management to agile management requires total submission to agile and a firm commitment from all members of the organization to seeing the process through. Issues like unequal results across the organization, too much change for employees' ability to handle, or a lack of guarantees at the end of the transformation are just a few examples.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cohn|first=Mike|title=Succeeding With Agile|publisher=Pearson|year=2015|isbn=978-0-321-57936-2|pages=5–10}}</ref>