Agile and Human Psychology.

A colleague pointed me to this article which argues that "Agile, like many methods, and indeed political doctrines such as communism (Das Kapital – Karl Marx), they look great on paper but fail to work in reality because they forget the human factor"

Much of the criticism in the observed culture seems to be related to the lack of leadership & direction and - due to this - that a tech "dictators" rises up and take control to benefit their own self-interest. For instance:

I was surprised to find in many cases that the Techncal staff conducted meetings with clients, leaving the Project Manager /SCRUM MASTER as a mute bystander, and totally ignoring risks, costs and commercial considerations. In all 3 organisations the managers, despite failure and chaos everywhere, were leaving for home on time and were mute concerning any questions concerning poor project delivery performance, instead choosing to hide behind the AGILE crucifix, with statements like “the team is responsible for this - go ask them they made the decisions. “Go talk to them! I am just following AGILE /SCRUM!”

Great we have a ship with no captain on deck being steered by the ships crew with any sinking / loss of life being the responsibility of the slumbering captain. No wonder they were in meltdown. CRAZY!

[...]

Resource Management had vanished. With no proper project plans, except lists of team SPRINT deliverables at the most rudimentary level, no one knew how long a project would take and when resource would be needed, or could be released, between projects. The dictators appeared to want as many people in their teams as possible and were reluctant to let them go in order to maintain their status.

I like scrum, there is a nobility and simplicity in the process and I've seen the process (below) work well, although not without some flaws - particularly when you doing a green-fields project with the need for a consistent user experience and technical design.

Source

However what strikes me as odd about the article i:

1. The role of the scrum master seems to be misunderstood.  They are not supposed to be a project manager, looking after risks and commercial considerations. For instance the Scrum alliance roles pages notes that "The ScrumMaster is a facilitative team leader who ensures that the team adheres to its chosen process and removes blocking issues."
2. There is never any mention of release planning or sprint planning processes - fundamental to the proper scrum process.See the image above
3. Most importantly, at no point does the author even mention the role of the Product Owner. 

The same Scrum Alliance roles page notes that the product owner decides what will be built and in which order. It is the product owner who:

• Defines the features of the product or desired outcomes of the project
  
• Chooses release date and content
  
• Ensures profitability (ROI)
  
• Prioritizes features/outcomes according to market value
  
• Adjusts features/outcomes and priority as needed
  
• Accepts or rejects work results.
  
• Facilitates scrum planning ceremony.
  

My conclusion - either the Product Owner role was not present or was not performed. In either case, while human psychology may create some of the results seen, it seems unfair to blame the process when the most important role - the one designed to address the shortcomings seen - is not even mentioned.