Are You Agile? Wrong Question!

"Are you agile?" What exactly does this question mean?  If you rigidly follow one of the sanctioned agile methods are you agile? If everyone in in your development team is co-located and participates in a daily Scrum are you agile? If every office wall serves an information radiator are you agile? If planning is done with index cards are you agile? While these are all good practices in the right context, the question really misses the point because besides your CTO or CIO any of the C-level execs, your customers, an the myriads of others who have a stake in your software care if you are agile? 

Well wait a minute there Steve you say, agility is about flexibility and adaptability, its the ability to satisfy customers and meet business needs in an ever changing and chaotic  environment. Ok, now we're talking, now we're framing the agile conversation in terms that are relevant to those who pay the bills and buy our products.  When we frame the conversation this way we see agility as a strategy for winning, delivering product and creating happy customers.

Asking the question "are you agile" too often leads to a near neurotic focus on specific light-weight practices, ignoring the project context. On an absolute scale, a BMW M3 is more "agile" than a Mac truck. However, if the job at hand is hauling 20 tons of concrete then the beautiful high performing light weight M3 is of little use to you. In the end all that matters is getting the job done in a timely and effective manner. Winning through agility is a strategy for success so long as we keep our focus on winning. The question is not "are you agile", rather its "are you winning?"