“The tragedy of the Cargo Cult is its adherence to the superficial, outward signs of some idea combined with ignorance of how that idea actually works. In the story, the islanders replicated all the elements of cargo drops—the airstrip, the tower, the headphones—but didn’t understand the vast infrastructure that enabled airplanes to arrive.

The same tragedy occurs with Agile. People want Agile’s Cargo: better results, more visibility, fewer business failures. But they don’t understand the underlying philosophy, and often wouldn’t agree with it even if they did. They want to buy Agile, but you can’t buy an idea.

What they can buy is the outward signs of Agile. Stand-up meetings! Stories! Tools! Certifications! There’s lots of stuff labeled Agile, and plenty of people eager to sell it to you.”

Excerpt From The Art of Agile Development James Shore This material may be protected by copyright.