I think a lot of this depends on the size of the organization and teams involved. Too often I find these kinds of articles (from both sides of the argument) ignore that aspect.
Some aspects of Agile/XP/Scrum etc. obviously have some benefits particularly for larger organizations/teams. On the other hand I've seen smaller companies that are trying to emulate this success really struggle to get real work done, because there are so many standups, retros, kanban and "user stories" etc. In between morning tea and lunchtime, not much breakfix or clearing out tech debt actually gets done, before they are required to pour another bucket of features on top.
I've worked at a company like this that held retros on Friday afternoons and by Monday morning standups, they couldn't remember the things that had been discussed in Friday's retro. It all felt so mindlessly pointless, and playing into the hands of those who make good money selling books about Agile, or talking at conferences about Agile.
IMHO I think the sweet spot is probably somewhere in between.
Some aspects of Agile/XP/Scrum etc. obviously have some benefits particularly for larger organizations/teams. On the other hand I've seen smaller companies that are trying to emulate this success really struggle to get real work done, because there are so many standups, retros, kanban and "user stories" etc. In between morning tea and lunchtime, not much breakfix or clearing out tech debt actually gets done, before they are required to pour another bucket of features on top.
I've worked at a company like this that held retros on Friday afternoons and by Monday morning standups, they couldn't remember the things that had been discussed in Friday's retro. It all felt so mindlessly pointless, and playing into the hands of those who make good money selling books about Agile, or talking at conferences about Agile.
IMHO I think the sweet spot is probably somewhere in between.