As a consultant, I get to see a lot of different organizations and work with a variety of teams. By now, virtually everyone has at least heard of Agile and read the Manifesto. We also seem to have, in technology adoption terms, crossed the chasm, and so adoption by more traditional, sometimes slower moving, global scale organizations is well underway. Agile has finally been vetted by the early adopters and is now becoming mainstream.
I, like others, talk about the difference between "doing Agile" and "being agile" — differing the big "A" Agile and the little "a" agile is intentional [BC1]. From an intellectual perspective, the notion of Agile being a mindset and a different way of seeing and acting in the world rather than a methodology or a process usually resonates. Still, though, I see a tendency to want an "Agile checklist"; a tendency toward Agile for the sake of being able to say "we’re Agile" rather than genuinely zeroing in on value and excellence. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard, "It’s not ‘Agile’ if you aren’t doing <insert practice here>."
