Set Free the Caged Cheetah: stagnated agile and productization as a way out

We noticed a quote from this post by Al Shalloway:

"I don’t see Agile as dead, or even dying. But it has stagnated."

From the Org Topologies™ perspective, we agree: Agile has stagnated—but not due to a lack of intention. Rather, the Scope of Work Mandate and the Scope of Skills Mandate have remained narrowly constrained.

In other words:

• Agile is often restricted to TASKS-level teams—where short-term iteration and local optimization dominate.

• And when scaled, it's frequently distorted through heavyweight frameworks, producing rigid, fragmented structures (e.g., large clusters of CAPS-1 or CAPS-2 units with PART-level coordination overhead).

The Core Problem: Shallow Application, Deep Resistance

We've seen many root causes blamed for this stagnation:

• Frameworks that don't scale well.

• "Agile transformations" that never reach beyond superficial restructuring.

• Certification mills that reduce deep change to role-based rituals.

But the deeper truth? True change is hard—especially systemic change that requires rethinking the organization from WHOLE-1 or WHOLE-2 perspectives.

As organizations grow, they build fortresses of local optimization. Fiefdoms. Silos. Middle layers dedicated to risk and cost minimization. These manifest as low-elevation ecosystems composed of disconnected CAPS and TASKS units, with no shared value clarity and fractured coordination.

From the Cheetah to the Map

Agile once promised the agility of a cheetah—lean, fast, adaptive. But that promise requires more than rituals. It demands systemic elevation: broadening both skill scope and ownership scope across the organization. Without that, organizational entropy sets in—and agility becomes theater.

To keep agility alive, we must redesign for it.

The Antidote: Consolidation Through Elevation

Org Topologies™ offers a visual and systemic way to do this. At the heart of elevation are two imperatives:

• Skill Consolidation: Achieved by forming complete teams (CAPS-2 and above) with the skills needed for fast-flow delivery.

• Value Consolidation: Achieved by designing business-oriented ecosystems—like PART-2, PART-3, or ideally WHOLE-level ecosystems—where groups of teams co-own broad customer or stakeholder value.

  
  

While DevOps and XP gave us ways to improve team-level fluency (horizontal movement), value consolidation requires upward movement. It means climbing out of the CAPS zone into PART and WHOLE ecosystems, where alignment, flow, and stakeholder-centricity can thrive.

Why the Agile Team Isn’t Enough

Local agile (i.e. team-level agility) is necessary, but insufficient. Elevating an organization requires:

• A shared backlog owned by elevated product leadership.

• Cross-team coordination in cadence, not via separate, delayed handovers.

• Integrated value domains that align business and tech under common goals (e.g., moving from CAPS to WHOLE).

In most organizations, we see confusion when we ask: “What is your Product?” That’s the Product Gap. Low-level Product Owners manage features and tasks (CAPS-level), while true product management sits far away (at WHOLE-level). The gap leads to broken feedback loops and poor adaptability.

A Way Forward: Productize in 90 Days

You don’t need to boil the ocean. You need a thoughtful start. Here’s how Org Topologies™ suggests you can begin consolidating value and elevating your org:

A Seven-Step Path Toward Productization:

1. Find the Value Domain – what whole does this system serve?

2. Form Teams for the Domain – multidisciplinary, elevated units.

3. Form the Leadership Team – elevated product leaders (not just POs).

4. Agree on Initial and Future Structure – current state and north star.

5. Apply Product-Level Scrum – not at team level, but across a team of teams.

6. Strive for Zero Distance – reduce the gap between makers and customers.

7. Strive for Broad Specialization – teams should span more, not less.

This progression will move your org toward higher-elevation ecosystems, such as PART-2 or WHOLE-1, where true business agility lives.

Own the Change

As Org Topologies™ emphasizes, change must be owned, not rented. Frameworks won’t save you. What will? Systemic clarity, shared language, and design-fit elevation.

So no, Agile isn’t dead. But it needs to grow up—from team-level improvements (TASKS and CAPS) to whole-system transformation (PART and WHOLE).

Let’s stop pretending that a scaled framework can do the thinking for us. Let’s start mapping, assessing, and elevating.

© 2023 Roland Flemm and Alexey Krivitsky for Org Topologies™.