April, 20208 IN MY V EWNEW TANK SYNDROME IN AN AGILE WORLDBY MICHAEL KOH, VP - ENTERPRISE AGILE COACH, TRANSFORMATION GROUP, DBS BANK [SGX: D05]Have you ever cleaned a fish tank only to find that the water has turned cloudier than before? As a novice hobbyist then, it used to baffle me. `New Tank Syndrome' as I quickly learnt from aquarium enthusiasts, arises when the tank's ecosystem has been upset from thorough cleaning. I had unwittingly purged the proper bacteria that breaks down waste from the fish. Drawing a parallel, I cannot help but wonder if we are in a similar catch-22 situation in the world of Agile transformation today.In the software delivery world since 2001, a new `revolution' bears witness to many chanting the Agile Manifesto with gusto, sending a death knell to the once trusted waterfall development. Teams across business and technology functions code-switch to adrenalin-charged buzzwords like `scrum', `sprint' and `tribe', seemingly ushering a new era. In true domino fashion, non-technical organizations such as HR and Finance propagate and scale Agile enthusiastically with new toolsets and practices. Even in the war room, business agility has become a strategic driver to stay ahead of market disruption. Invariably, Agile has gained its reputation as the lynchpin of digital success in the modern business world.While Agile has left its indelible mark in almost every facet of work, could it have morphed into a monolithic culture that creates more fragility than agility? Agile advocates fight tooth and nail over the Pooyan Asgari
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