After exploring some philosophic and economic aspects of collectivism vs. individualism based on Koch’s brothers political agenda and Frederick Hayek’s writing (The Road To Serfdom), I have come to a surprising conclusion about Agile Software Methodologies. It seems as if it emphasizes power of the team ( i.e. collectivism) and downplays an individual contribution. And sure enough, doing a quick google search, I see others have thought of this issue as well. Practices of “Pair programming”, “open work spaces”, ideas of “collective code ownership” and “team decides” all lean a bit left wing. Also, it appears to be a bit in conflict with HR policies related to individual performance reviews.
This is not to say that Agile Scrum or XP are detrimental to a team or a project. There are numerous success stories and the set of practices these methodologies bring to the table are effective and empower teams to deliver better quality software and meet customer needs. This is just a mere observation and I think we should not take the social aspect of any methodology for granted and think about how it might fit within an organizational culture overall, and effects it might have on individual team member motivation and performance.
