As far as I'm concerned, "agile" refers to the principles on this page[1], and ONLY the principles on this page. Not Scrum, not Lean, not Kanban, not Xtreme.
The problem is, it's hard to sell a set of principles. To understand people and interactions takes months of working with people: it's much easier to sell them a process or a tool and leave. Customer collaboration requires building a relationship: it's much easier to negotiate a contract for your client and leave. Responding to change requires you to stick around and see what changes happen: it's much easier to sell them a plan and leave. And to arrive at working software you have to get a lot of things right: it's much easier to sell a bunch of documentation for software that doesn't exist, and then leave. Money ruins everything: the reason agile had to explicitly deprioritize the things on the right side of the list in the first place is that all the incentives in a software company push you toward the wrong priorities. The things on the right side of the list are all quick, easy wins that look good on a quarterly report.
There are companies who I've worked with who do agile (the principles) well. There's nothing wrong with looking at Scrum/Kanban/whatever as inspiration, as long as you realize that they're just processes: individuals and interactions matter more. There's nothing wrong with using Pivotal/Jira/Trello/whatever, as long as you realize they're just tools: individuals and interactions matter more.
As far as I'm concerned, "agile" refers to the principles on this page[1], and ONLY the principles on this page. Not Scrum, not Lean, not Kanban, not Xtreme.
The problem is, it's hard to sell a set of principles. To understand people and interactions takes months of working with people: it's much easier to sell them a process or a tool and leave. Customer collaboration requires building a relationship: it's much easier to negotiate a contract for your client and leave. Responding to change requires you to stick around and see what changes happen: it's much easier to sell them a plan and leave. And to arrive at working software you have to get a lot of things right: it's much easier to sell a bunch of documentation for software that doesn't exist, and then leave. Money ruins everything: the reason agile had to explicitly deprioritize the things on the right side of the list in the first place is that all the incentives in a software company push you toward the wrong priorities. The things on the right side of the list are all quick, easy wins that look good on a quarterly report.
There are companies who I've worked with who do agile (the principles) well. There's nothing wrong with looking at Scrum/Kanban/whatever as inspiration, as long as you realize that they're just processes: individuals and interactions matter more. There's nothing wrong with using Pivotal/Jira/Trello/whatever, as long as you realize they're just tools: individuals and interactions matter more.
[1] https://agilemanifesto.org/