Badly managed businesses that are run the "top down" way the author describes typically have no respect or desire to understand the product development process they depend so heavily on for success and profit. No amount of "Agile" or "Lean", no consultant or trainer, no Kanban or Scrum board can really ever hope to change this for them if these organizations cannot self reflect and see that they are standing in their own way.
The concepts and learning that has come from the agile and lean software movements are still valuable though. Valuable for those who choose learn and are willing apply them, test them, validate them and actually self discover what is and is not effective. But they are absolutely snake oil and worthless for those who are unwilling to put in this basic effort.
I think you may have accidentally nailed the crux of it in your first sentence. Most enterprises are not software shops and nearly everything represented in this blog post is not talking about product development... and if you're not selling it you're probably not going to be inclined to care about best practices or be passionate about quality or timeliness.
No amount of "Agile" or "Lean", no consultant or trainer, no Kanban or Scrum board can really ever hope to change this for them if these organizations cannot self reflect and see that they are standing in their own way.
You neglect the larger scale life cycle of such companies. Over time, in a large and varied environment, some group manages to do the right things. The real value of such group is recognized for a time, but then is lost to time and attrition. The project ages and becomes another outdated and sclerotic barrier to further progress.
The concepts and learning that has come from the agile and lean software movements are still valuable...But they are absolutely snake oil and worthless for those who are unwilling to put in this basic effort.
Basically, you want good people and a team culture that actually works.
Basically, you want good people and a team culture that actually works.
Bingo. Which is of course, the hard part to do and maintain. The rest of it is really mostly hand waving. I do believe in a lot of the lean philosophy, and I believe that finding a process that works is crucial to success, but I also believe only a team capable of defining, developing and refining a process will ever have one that "works".
The concepts and learning that has come from the agile and lean software movements are still valuable though. Valuable for those who choose learn and are willing apply them, test them, validate them and actually self discover what is and is not effective. But they are absolutely snake oil and worthless for those who are unwilling to put in this basic effort.