Reflections on Software Agility and Agile Methods: Challenges, Dilemmas, and the Way Ahead

What are the drivers for the burgeoning interest in agile methods? Have these drivers stimulated a similar rethinking on other fronts? What have we discovered? In this paper, I take a reflective stance in order to look at these larger issues and patterns. This stepping back is informed primarily by involvement in a multi-year research project on Quality Software Development @ Internet Speed and ongoing research on diffusion theory and the practices of technology adoption. I suggest the shift toward agile models and methods signals a larger transformation in the workplace toward the organization of the 21 century. This transition state is “between paradigms” and turbulent, marked by relentless change and volatility. The transition is a work in progress and by no means complete.