Introducing the Agile Pill

Through the years we have at Crisp repeatedly been confronted with the question “How can I become Agile?”. We have checked with coaches outside Crisp and they give us the same picture. People want to become agile and they want it now. It has become obvious to us that there is a need for a quick fix. Hence the Agile Pill.

The agile pill box
The agile pill

It was not done in a blink of an eye. We started at an agile conference in 2016, Agila Sverige. Here we counselled fellow agilists on how such a pill should be designed. In the year to come, and some more, our devoted effort brought fruit and we can now present the result to the public.

The Agile Pill will give you an agile mindset without any need for extensive training and practicing. You only have to find the right dose. “Take the pill right, agile in a fortnight”, as we say.

Of course there will be consequences when getting an agile mindset. This red pill will make you see the world in a different light, i.e., as it really is. Typically, you will experience the following:

  • Processes and tools, labelled agile or not, are of some help but it is actually how people work together that is the most important. You may even experience that people succeed despite processes and tools, rather than because of them.
  • Documentation is appreciated and important but what really matters is delivering value. In our context, we often talk about the value of working software. A fraction of the pill contains TDD to enlighten the importance of “working”. It may be painful to you when software is delivered and not working, but you have chosen this path.
  • Specifications in contracts written before we start, when we know the least, is an established practice that will start looking different to you. Instead of giving the benefits that you thought before, you will see the lose-lose situation. The more important aspect of collaboration between the parties is shot down by paragraphs of a dated agreement.
  • Planning is important, you knew that already. But now you will feel the pain of the plan as new insights build up over time. A plan is a hindrance to react on these insights and thus the inevitable, omnipresent force of change, will not be responded to.

Those were just a few examples of how the pill will interact with your world perception. It may be disturbing but like when you discovered that Santa is not for real, you don’t want to go back.

Dr J. Janlén and Dr P. Lundholm showing the Agile Pill

Eat your pill responsibly.

Note: How do I get hold of a box of agile pills you might wonder? Well, your current options are to either visit our office in Stockholm, attend one of our trainings, or if you know anyone of us working for Crisp, ask them to bring you a box.

Read more about the Agile Pill on the product page.

14 responses on “Introducing the Agile Pill

  1. What will happen if your mindset has started to turn more agile already? Is there a risk of overdosing? 🙂

    1. Overdosing has not been a strong problem during our tests. We see that people with a beginning agile mindset gets an accelerated effect. When reaching total clearance, there is an immunity response which prevents harmful effects.

  2. OMG, this is so cool. I would need dozen of them…I have few names in mind who would need that so much. 🙂
    I am wondering, as a girl, always on diet, what are the sides effects on weight ? 😉
    Thanks for the-back-to-work-day’s smile 🙂

    1. Thank you so much for commenting, Anne-Sophie.

      We see this a lot, people wishing that other ate the pill. But you never know, they might be on the cure and one day surprise you.

      When it comes to effect on your weight, the pill has a see-clear effect making you see that weight is one of those metrics that does not necessarily give any insights but are deployed because the cost of measurement is low.

      In other words, measuring weight is popular because it is easy to do but the value of it is questionable.

  3. Is the matching blue pill available as well, so those for whom it is all a tad much have the option to revert?

    (Its availability would limit the risk associated with taking the agile pill, turning it into a safe to fail experiment. Therefore I believe it would strongly help the spread of agile.)

    1. I haven’t thought of it that way. The question about a blue pill is quite frequent, though. Now we have an argument for it.

      Thanks for your comment!

  4. I would like to order several containers of these, ideally in liquid form.
    Our plan is to use this in our Brita system at the office.

    Organisational transformation made easy 😉

  5. Wow! our team definitely need those pills. Where can I get a pack ? 🙂 🙂 🙂

  6. Hello, is it possible to adquire those packages as merchandise for our agile events?

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