Over the past few years lots of people have been cashing in on the success of Agile and Scrum. Somehaveevenreachedcultstatusso thatpeoplesay“Iwastrainedbyxxxxoneofthefounders/gurus”.Sois thereanAgile/Scrumbandwagon...anoverstatingofthebenefits? HardfactsonthesuccessofAgilearethinontheground.When someonesponsorsitsintroductiontheirreputationison-the-line.No onewantstotalkaboutfailureafterspendinglargeamountsofmoney ontrainingandsomuchupheaval. So,isAgilebetterthanWaterfall?Inouropinion,yes whenitcomes totheiterativedevelopmentofsoftwarefeaturesandonlinesoftware, nowhenitcomestolarge,complex,multi-elementsolutions.DoAgile andScrumgiveaclearframeworkfordevelopment andcontinuous improvement–yes,butsodoothersystems.Doesprototypinganda seriesofshortWaterfall-typeprojectsgetyoumanyofthebenefitsof Agile–wellquitepossibly,yes. Thatleadstotherealityinmostorganisations,whichistouse whateverapproachseemsmostappropriatefortheprojectinhand–be itAgile,Waterfalloramixtureofthetwo. Butfromaproductmanagementperspectiveitdoesn’tmatter! Whateverdevelopmentapproachyouuse,earlycustomerfeedback fromprototypingoranAgileiterationreallyhelpsbutyou’vestillgotto understand,prioritiseandgettherequirementsright. Andwhateverdevelopmentapproachyouuse,itstillcomesdownto thequalityofthepeople.Goodpeoplewilldogoodworkwhatever processthey’reusing. Andafteryou’vedevelopedtheperfectproductyoustillhaveto launchandmarketit.Ifnooneknowsyourproductexistsor understandswhatitcando,itisn’tgoingtobesuccessful. Don’tgetuswrong–wethinkAgileisagreatthing,butit’snotthe onlything.Don’t get sucked into the hype, dogma and sometimes even religious-like zealotry ... Scrum is not the one and only true way. 22 ProductManagementJournalVolume 7  TheInsight ThedangersofAgilehype PMJ 7.2 WiseWords “If you hype somethingandit succeeds,you’rea genius... ifyouhype it andit fails,thenit was just hype.” Neil Bogart, American record executive