VIDEO Martin Fowler (a co-author of the Agile Manifesto) recently shared misinformation regarding scientific research which cast doubt on the Agile methodology, which has since been comprehensively disproven. Even more disturbingly, Fowler shared these claims which originated from someone else who was subject to investigation for stalking the researchers involved.
These claims were debunked with the help of two PhD-grade data scientists, and the original research had involved three doctorate-trained professionals.
Despite Fowler holding the position of Chief Scientist at Thoughtworks, this situation demonstrated he has shared fundamentally incorrect information concerning commonly used statistical techniques. This comes against a backdrop where Thoughtworks share price has fallen nearly 90% over the past 5 years (n.b. Thoughtworks IPOed on the 15th September 2021 which is how far back this data goes for 5-year intervals) , with the company soon set to be taken private and delisted.
In the talk "A Retake on the Agile Manifesto" at GOTO 2014, Fowler stated the goal of creating the Agile Manifesto was to create a process "which doesn't depend on the requirements being stable".
Another later signatory of the Agile Manifesto, Allen Holub, has adopted an aggressive approach when it comes to rejecting upfront requirements despite the evidence that is emerging, stating on X: "Why are people so convinced that waterfall up-front (functional) requirements are essential? They're a disease. They're at the core of waterfall thinking. There is no place for them when you work with agility."
Holub later went on to say: "Requirements, by definition, are limits. They remove choice. They eliminate creativity and destroy agility."
Our research has shown that projects where there were clear requirements before development started were 97% more likely to succeed, projects having complete specifications before development started were 50% more likely to succeed and those where there were no late changes to requirements were 7% more likely to succeed.
Two Boeing 737 Max crashes in 2018-19 which killed 346 people have been attributed to "flaws in the software design", with those involved in Boeing's "Agile transformation" having celebrated the removal of big upfront requirements.
Ahead of the crisis, engineers at Boeing reportedly almost walked out of an Agile training session.
The Post Office scandal which has been described as the largest miscarriage of justice in British history, linked to multiple suicides with those wrongly imprisoned including a pregnant woman. At the public inquiry, multiple witnesses have attributed as a cause of the technical problems being the absence of a robust requirements engineering process before development began.
Fowler has also advocated the use of software engineering metrics which prioritise speed above other factors. Following the CrowdStrike outages, job descriptions for "Agile Delivery Lead" positions indicate the use of Agile metrics within the organisation, stating that in the role the successful applicant will: "create and report on sprint metrics and velocity planning."
We urge influencers in the software engineering field to take their responsibilities seriously. The promotion of fundamentalist approaches to Agile without appropriately managing risks is dangerous. Critical thinking and accountability must prevail in an industry where the stakes can often be too high for carelessness.
See the third-party article "P-Hacking with Dinosaurs " for further information on the claims Fowler made and a comprehensive falsification.
Thumbnail image: Ade Oshineye, Flickr: Martin Fowler / CC BY 2.0Source: https://citaty-slavnych.sk/autori/martin-fowler/
