Coca-cola, Agile, FOMO

Think about Coca-cola.
Are they doing good business? Obviously yes.

Are they forcing people to buy their drinks?
Certainly not. People buy Coke using their free will. Does it do any good for people? I don’t think so. For that matter, any sugary, carbonated drink is bad for your body.

But that is what *I* think.

People need not think the same way as I think.
Obviously drinking carbonated drinks must be doing something good for people. Maybe it is instant gratification, or appearing cool, or a sense of being part of a progressive generation, or whatever.

A few days back I read that Kent Beck thinks of Agile as a devastated wasteland because this Agile stuff has become a few religious rituals being carried out by people.  Maybe it is true. IMO there are more and more frameworks giving birth to more and more rituals.  And there are thousands of organizations and individuals who are spending millions of hard-earned $ to become a citizen of this wasteland by following these rituals.

But here is a point...since they are doing these rituals by their own free will, they must be getting something in return. Maybe following some rituals makes them really more valuable to their business, or it is the instant sense of belonging to a high-tech tribe, or a feeling of looking cool, or avoiding the FOMO, or some may even use these rituals as a safety net.

Just like buying from IBM was a great safety net in the past. In fact, about 40 years back it was a well-known phrase that “Nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM”.

Whether it is carbonated water or frameworks, due credit must be given for their superb marketing.  The biggest beneficiary in this Agile Industrial Complex is the Training Industry & the Certification Companies.

Nothing wrong with that.
Everybody wants to be “A”gile in a simplified, assured, time-tested, certified way.

And those who are already "A"gile certified, want to boost their “A”gile Maturity Index.
These are good days for AIC.