The term “agile theater” cannot be attributed to any single author. Rather, it became associated with a group of senior agile practitioners who, around 2010–2015, began using it, along with terms such as “agile circus” and “agile masquerade”, to describe omissions, dysfunctions, and misappropriations in the world of agile product development and agile ways of working.
Agile theater manifests itself in many forms, including the misuse of lightweight agile frameworks, weak product definition, the weakening of agile roles (such as agile coach, Scrum Master, and Product Owner), gaming of estimates and metrics, rigid HR norms and standards that adversely impact workers’ behavior, and organizational structures and dynamics that work against agility.
Below, you will find a wide variety of graphics licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-SA and CC0. These images highlight many common problems by combining humor with deeper meaning. Please feel free to use them in your daily work. We simply ask that you provide attribution to the source—KSTS Consulting and the people behind it—as a small token of appreciation.
If you would like additional context or an explanation of the meaning behind any of the images, please feel free to reach out and ask.
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