THINKING ISSUES: is Agility a Disposition and Can It Be Taught?

T his column reflects on the nature of ‘dispositions’ and how they relate to an elusive notion such as ‘agility’, which can be viewed as embodying a mindset. So, if agility, then, is a disposition, can it be taught and if so how? Reviewing a recent capstone project experience, I suggest the answer is yes, and illustrate how teachable moments arise! Although I have conducted research into and written on various aspects of agile methods, and educated students in their practice, I remain ambivalent and sceptical about their merits and definitions. However, I still hold to my early views that “once one gets past the evangelism and the hype of the agilists, some of the principles and practices are very sound and embody considerable wisdom.” [6] I recall Phillipe Kruchten musing at a conference some while ago “What is this agilisme?” So, what can we say we do when we educate students about agile methods, and do they truly relate to agility itself? How can agility be defined, and can it be taught? To start with the definition question, this semester one of my students in our Master of IT Project Management has managed to survive lockdowns and produce a very interesting piece of work. In an investigation of the application of metrics in agile project management she came up with the puzzling finding that 80% of the metrics related to process, and only 20% to product outcomes where the value is demonstrated [11]. So, customer satisfaction seems to have got lost somewhere. Have the evangelists and agile coaches led us down a narrow path of process not purpose? Yet the core principle of agility from the agile manifesto [9] states that “Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” Unpacking the three key aspects then of agile development they can be said to comprise: 1) customer satisfaction, 2) delivery of working software, and 3) provision of value. In our own work we have found that mature agile product companies can adhere to these goals, with scaled agile frameworks helping organizations develop “dynamic capabilities” leading to improved effectiveness and reduced development risk [1,9]. Dynamic capabilities have been defined as: ...behavioural orientation constantly to integrate, reconfigure, renew and recreate its resources and capabilities and, most importantly, upgrade and reconstruct its core capabilities in response to the changing environment to attain and sustain competitive advantage [12].