2024 Agile is a Labor Movement - Agile2024 Lightning Talk

For years we’ve been trying to use “productivity gains” and “innovation” to get corporations to pay us for our services. The last few years - apocalyptic layoffs, bone-dry sales pipelines - should have taught us that they’re literally not buying it anymore. Why not? Let’s be real. The gains SHAREHOLDERS care about are - charitably - modest. Agile’s ROI doesn’t justify the high cost of transformation and never did.

There’s an important truth in our tired hot takes about “individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” The parts of agile that are more relevant and necessary than ever are the ones that make tech teams’ jobs suck less - sustainable pace, self-organization, respect for expertise, pride in delivery. Corporations don’t care about those things, which is why WE have to. What if, instead of begging for capitalism’s scraps, we used agile to take our power back?

1. Agile is a
Labor Movement
Cheryl Hammond
#Agile2024

2. I’m over it ??????

3. Fortress Agile
nurturing and growing healthy practices in a hostile environment
@bsktcase #FortressAgile #Agile2021

4. We just need
executive support
and other lies of transformation
“
”

5. Agile is a
Labor Movement
Cheryl Hammond
#Agile2024

6. labor movement

noun
1 : an organized effort on the part of workers to improve their economic and social status by
united action through the medium of labor unions

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/labor%20movement

7. labor movement

noun
1 : an organized effort on the part of workers to improve their economic and social status by
united action through the medium of labor unions

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/labor%20movement
agile teams

10. ★Estimation hell? Stop agonizing and start
guessing. Be just as wrong, but in less time.
★Blocked by dependencies? Make friends on
the blocking teams. Empathize, cut deals, or
bribe.
★Unclear prioritization? Gather corporate intel
on your own. Make better-informed guesses.
★Too much WIP? WIP isn’t just how much
you’re asked to do, it’s how much you do at a
time. Stop starting, start finishing.
★No time for quality? Build it in anyway. They
already think you’re slow, so be slow better.
“Gee, that’s just how long software takes ?????? ”
★Support each other. Win allies and grow your
movement by delivering results.
★It’s 2024. Resist carefully, comrades.

11. We all we got—we all we need