Scott Duncan
1 min readJun 21, 2024

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A parallel exists in the field of product development where Agile "frameworks" with their certification programs have taken over useful ideas. Seminars, conferences, YouTube videos...just a host of books and articles...all promote the idea of the "right," "best," or "better" way to practice the original useful ideas in the Agile Manifesto's values and principles.

It took less than a year for at least one individual who was part of the writing of that Manifesto to start promoting their implementation of the ideas (a framework) into a program of certified roles and training.

It took a few years, but not many, for the "early majority" (using Moore's "chasm" classification) to feel that it was now safe for them to engage in such practices because the certifications gave them legitimacy. They had plenty of legitimacy on their own, but the large business community needed some external validation from others (in a groupthink fashion) to interest them. Then they adopted the framework(s) (more developed over time) easily ignoring the values and principles they were based upon. This meant they adopted the thinking of others rather than doing their own.

Current industry discussion is about how many of the large adopters have started to back away from what they adopted likely because they never really successfully adopted the fundamentals just the copying of someone else's framework.

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