I found the goals of any methodology be it agile or any other, are often noble and justified.
But also often along the way, the means or the methodology, like a Cuckoo chick, pushes the goals out of the nest an inserts itself as the new goal. The ever expanding framework is now a good to strived for, in it self, as it is now the new goal. And as such more methodology and more framework is always better. We hire people who are trained in the method, who built careers on a method, who gain power and prestige, because of their connection to this method.
We end up bypassing common sense, instill ourself instead with a lack of rationality of almost Kafka’sk proportion as the monster of method now slowly devours all other goals, as the devout and pious proselytes throw their procedures at you. You wonder at what point the weight of the method will break the back of the underlying business.
While I do cringe a little bit on the phrasing of this question, you have to ask why? Improving yourself and finding better ways of doing things is not wrong? Choosing to learn and utilize others experience to your advantage that is a good thing right? The old way is not always the best way, and there is strong argument for claim that those who do not evolve, die.
I think the effort to always challenge your method and maintain a strong understanding of why every piece of your method is executed and why it has to be that exact way, is vital. But your answers has to be without having to resort to “authorities of method” and the “because they say so!”. It has to be explained and make sense within the context of exactly your business. Otherwise you have just replaced your old dogma with a new dogma.
A lot people get invested in “a way” of doing things, either by tradition, by investment, because it is a route to power or success. And while the initial development or adoption of a framework is often driven by desire for improvement, at some point it becomes a beast of its own. Thomas Kuhn provided the philosophy of science this realization many years ago, but it remains as true for business frameworks as well. A paradigm paralysis in which we remain fixed in models that clearly do not yield the desired results, but resist breaking from the models, despite their obvious flaws.
In my opinion there is no general best way, Scrum, SAFe, RUP or Waterfall etc. It is almost always dependent on the business itself, the people, the culture, the competencies and the desire for a certain model. What is important is to understand that almost everything is but a tool, IT, methods, cloud, outsourcing, Agile or KPI’s to steer you to the primary goal. And as with any tool it should evaluated and discarded promptly when not driving you forward to your goal.
But to adopt any model and now blindly assume is going to deliver all you ever dreamed of, as you diligently follow its doctrine, that is no longer a methodology for good business, it is now a religion.