Agile, like anything, is perfect when you implement it perfectly. Nobody does, but it's not the method's fault, the method is perfect. What I have seen is it us

Agile, like anything, is perfect when you implement it perfectly. Nobody does, but it's not the method's fault, the method is perfect. What I have seen is it used as a chip on the shoulders that makes product meetings feel like dealing with communist border guards. Working in Agile shops can be a lot like watching lab mice running a maze. You try to say, "hey, so this path you are working on, there is a map for it when it was solved in <discipline x>." and the response was, "this is Agile, we don't take grand designs or waterfall requirements, and we don't need anymore chickens in our standup." Or you say, "hey, so this thing you are building, for someone to buy it, we're going to have to explain to them why it's good and how it meets their expectations, can we create a sequence diagram or a model so I can plug in how it meets standards and regulations and code and such?" and the response is, "we don't need documentation, the code is documented, and if you had provided us with the requirements we could prove it in our unit testing." The trouble I have with a lot of engineering and dev culture is what it lacks, and often irrationally rejects, is balancing the technical understanding with a top down view. The best engineers have or at least appreciate this, and they bring it with them. Unfortunately this gets them immediately promoted to roles where they aren't actually writing code. I've used this house building simile in Agile shops before, where any bunch of carpenters, electricians, plumbers and brick layers can build a fine house that will stand up, but the matter of whether anyone will want to live in it, buy it, insure it, legally sell it, live anywhere near it, or trust that it won't be knocked down by local climate or regulations - is an equally complex problem you need someone with expertise to solve. Everyone has complains, devs about managers, managers about devs, it's an age old problem. A lot of Agile gets used to formalize an adolescent culture. I look forward to the pendulum swinging back to a more balanced equilibrium.