Agile's Journey Through the Decades

BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com

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Introduction

Agile has come a long way since its early days, evolving through decades of adaptation and innovation. What began as a response to rigid development practices has become a global movement, influencing industries beyond software. Along the way, principles and practices have shaped how teams collaborate and deliver value. This article (and the related
infographic) takes you through Agile’s history, highlighting key moments that have defined its evolution. Discover the decades of transformation that keep Agile evolving and relevant in today’s world.

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Agile Through the Decades

The 1950s

  • 1957: IBM began utilizing incremental development in software projects.
  • 1958: Software for Project Mercury, the United States’ first human spaceflight program, was developed in half-day iterations.

The 1960s

  • 1968: IBM’s Harlan Mills advocated for staged, incremental software development with continuous user involvement.

The 1970s

[Agile took a Disco Nap]

The 1980s

  • 1980: Toyota introduced visual control, a predecessor to Agile’s information radiators.
  • 1984: Leo Brodie described the concept of factoring, an early influence on code structuring.
  • 1985: Tom Gilb introduced the Evolutionary Delivery Model, an alternative to the Waterfall methodology.
  • 1986: The influential article "The New New Product Development Game" by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka was published in the Harvard Business Review, laying the groundwork for Scrum.
  • 1988: The timebox approach was central to DuPont’s Rapid Iterative Production Prototyping.

The 1990s

  • 1990: Bill Opdyke coined the term refactoring, which became fundamental in Agile software development.
  • 1991: James Martin described timeboxing and iterations, core components of Agile frameworks.
  • 1993:Jim Coplien introduced the stand-up meeting pattern. Scrum was first used as a process by Jeff Sutherland, John Scumniotales, and Jeff McKenna at Easel Corporation.
  • 1994: Alistair Cockburn advocated working in increments.
  • 1995: Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland co-presented Scrum.
  • 1997: Ken Schwaber described the daily Scrum.
  • 1998: The Chrysler Goes to Extremes case study detailed Extreme Programming (XP) practices like self-chosen tasks, three-week iterations, and pair programming.

The 2000s

  • 2000: Martin Fowler published an article defining continuous integration. Ken Schwaber introduced the burndown chart.
  • 2001: Seventeen software development experts—Kent Beck, Mike Beedle, Arie van Bennekum, Alistair Cockburn, Ward Cunningham, Martin Fowler, Robert C. Martin, Steve Mellor, Dave Thomas, James Grenning, Jim Highsmith, Andrew Hunt, Ron Jeffries, Jon Kern, Brian Marick, Ken Schwaber, and Jeff Sutherland—formulated the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, emphasizing individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration, and responding to change. Mary Poppendieck highlighted Agile’s similarities with Lean manufacturing. Alistair Cockburn coined the term information radiator.
  • 2005: Mike Cohn’s Agile Estimating and Planning introduced techniques such as Planning Poker.
  • 2008: Kane Mar formally described backlog grooming. Jeff Patton introduced story mapping.
  • 2009: The concept of DevOps emerged from John Allspaw and Paul Hammond’s talk on 10+ daily deployments, while Patrick Debois coined the term.

The 2010s to Present

  • 2010: Dean Leffingwell and Drew Jemilo introduced the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), designed for enterprise-level Agile adoption.

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Conclusion

Agile has continually evolved, proving its resilience and relevance across industries. It adapts to new challenges and innovations. And its core principles of collaboration, flexibility, and continuous improvement remain as vital as ever.

Scott M. Graffius developed a related infographic—'Agile's History, Visualized'—and released it via Exceptional Agility AI. It's also available
here.

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Many individuals and organizations have made valuable contributions to Agile. This article highlights select major milestones and is not intended to be an exhaustive list.


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Read on for:
  • About Scott M. Graffius,
  • How to cite this article,
  • and more.

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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius is a high impact and globally recognized AI, advanced technology, agile, and project management researcher, thought leader, author, and public speaker.

Graffius has generated more than USD $1.9 billion in business value for organizations served, including Fortune 500 companies. Businesses and industries range from technology (including R&D and AI) to entertainment, financial services, and healthcare, government, social media, and more.

Graffius leads the professional services firm Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, along with its subsidiary Exceptional Agility. These consultancies offer strategic and tactical advisory, training, embedded talent, and consulting services to public, private, and government sectors. They help organizations enhance their capabilities and results in agile, project management, program management, portfolio management, and PMO leadership, supporting innovation and driving competitive advantage. The consultancies confidently back services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Graffius is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.

He is the author of two award-winning books.
Organizations around the world invite Graffius to speak on tech (including AI), agile, project management, program management, portfolio management, and PMO leadership. He has developed and delivered unique and compelling talks and workshops. To date, Graffius has delivered 91 sessions across 25 countries. Select examples of events include Agile Trends Gov, BSides (Newcastle Upon Tyne), Conf42 Quantum Computing, DevDays Europe, DevOps Institute, DevOpsDays (Geneva), Frug’Agile, IEEE, Microsoft, Scottish Summit, Scrum Alliance RSG (Nepal), Techstars, and W Love Games International Video Game Development Conference (Helsinki), and more. With an average rating of 4.81 (on a scale of 1-5), sessions are highly valued.

Prominent businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities have featured Graffius and his work including content from his books, talks, workshops, and more. Select examples include:
  • Adobe,
  • American Management Association,
  • Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute,
  • Bayer,
  • BMC Software,
  • Boston University,
  • Broadcom,
  • Cisco,
  • Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts Germany,
  • Computer Weekly,
  • Constructor University Germany,
  • Data Governance Success,
  • Deimos Aerospace,
  • DevOps Institute,
  • EU's European Commission,
  • Ford Motor Company,
  • Gartner
  • GoDaddy,
  • Harvard Medical School,
  • Hasso Plattner Institute Germany,
  • IEEE,
  • Innovation Project Management,
  • Johns Hopkins University,
  • Journal of Neurosurgery,
  • Lam Research (Semiconductors),
  • Leadership Worthy,
  • Life Sciences Trainers and Educators Network,
  • London South Bank University,
  • Microsoft,
  • NASSCOM,
  • National Academy of Sciences,
  • New Zealand Government,
  • Oracle,
  • Pinterest Inc.,
  • Project Management Institute,
  • SANS Institute,
  • SBG Neumark Germany,
  • Singapore Institute of Technology,
  • Torrens University Australia,
  • TBS Switzerland,
  • Tufts University,
  • UC San Diego,
  • UK Sports Institute,
  • University of Galway Ireland,
  • US Department of Energy,
  • US National Park Service,
  • US Tennis Association,
  • Veleučilište u Rijeci Croatia,
  • Verizon,
  • Virginia Tech,
  • Warsaw University of Technology,
  • Wrike,
  • Yale University,
  • and many others.

Graffius has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional standards. He was a member of the team which produced the
Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Graffius was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition, The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition, and The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI’s Congress. Beyond the PMI, Graffius also served as a member of the review team for two of the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gatherings.

Graffius has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds eight professional certifications:

  • Certified SAFe 6 Agilist (SA),
  • Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster (CSP-SM),
  • Certified Scrum Professional - Product Owner (CSP-PO),
  • Certified ScrumMaster (CSM),
  • Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO),
  • Project Management Professional (PMP),
  • Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and
  • IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL).

He is an active member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

He divides his time between Los Angeles and Paris, France.

Thought Leader | Public Speaker | Agile Scrum Book | Agile Transformation Book | Blog | Photo | X | LinkedIn | Email

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How to Cite This Article


Graffius, Scott M. (2025, February 21).
Agile's Journey Through the Decades. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/agile's-journey-through-the-decades.html.

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Scott M. Graffius wrote this article. He wrote a related article at Exceptional Agility AI.

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Copyright

Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.

Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.






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Dropbox Company (Nira) Taps into Scott M. Graffius’ Expertise in Strategic Planning

BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com

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Introduction

In 2024, Dropbox, a leader in cloud storage and collaboration, broadened its vision by
acquiring Nira, a company focused on boosting team productivity through innovative tools. This acquisition aligned with the launch of Dropbox Dash for Business, an AI-powered universal search tool designed to streamline workflows for over 1 billion knowledge workers worldwide.

Scott M. Graffius is honored that Dropbox company Nira has recognized his expertise in strategic planning by featuring his work in their
article on retrospective meetings, credited as "Adapted by FYI from Scott Graffius" and "www.scottgraffius.com." Views follow.

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This nod highlights the power of strategic planning in fostering clarity and impact—core values that resonate with Dropbox’s mission. This article explores how this recognition underscores the rising value of structured collaboration in today’s dynamic work landscape.

Main Body

Impact mapping turns abstract goals into actionable steps. It addresses four key questions—Why? Who? How? What?—to create a visual roadmap linking objectives, stakeholders, desired impacts, and deliverables. By charting the "shortest path" to success, it helps teams prioritize the most effective actions. Nira’s article on retrospective meetings—a process where teams reflect on past sprints/projects to improve future outcomes—demonstrates how impact mapping elevates this practice. By charting the effects of deliverables on key stakeholders, teams can identify what delivered value and where refinements are needed, transforming retrospectives into a springboard for progress.

Dropbox’s 2024 acquisition of Nira amplifies this emphasis on productivity and alignment. With Dash for Business, Dropbox addresses information overload by integrating search across platforms like Google Workspace and Asana, tapping into an $8 billion universal search market set to double in size. Impact mapping complements this innovation by offering strategic clarity, enabling teams to maximize tools. Nira’s inclusion of Graffius’ work signals how strategic planning bridges intent and execution, aligning with Dropbox’s aim to simplify collaboration.

Conclusion

For Graffius, recognition from Dropbox's Nira is a meaningful affirmation of universal relevance of strategic planning. He is eager to see how Dropbox continues to embed strategic clarity into its growing suite of solutions. This milestone strengthens his commitment to advancing strategic planning, shaping the future of collaboration with precision and purpose.

To learn more about impact mapping, read
this article.

Read on for:

  • About Nira,
  • About Dropbox,
  • About Scott M. Graffius,
  • How to Cite This Article,
  • and more.

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About Nira

Nira, acquired by Dropbox, is a content governance platform that provides a suite of in-depth functionality to protect cloud files from unauthorized access. With Nira, Dropbox designed a custom solution built directly into Dash, so businesses can easily protect confidential documents in just a few clicks. Admins can now see everything that’s been shared in their company, across every major content platform, in one place. Then, they can identify sensitive content and manage bulk changes for any number of assets at once—eliminating a previously tedious and manual document-by-document process.
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About Dropbox

Dropbox is the one place to keep life organized and keep work moving. With more than 700 million registered users across approximately 180 countries, it’s on a mission to design a more enlightened way of working. Dropbox is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has employees around the world. For more information, visit https://dropbox.com.

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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius is a high impact and globally recognized AI, advanced technology, agile, and project management researcher, thought leader, author, and public speaker.

Graffius has generated more than USD $1.9 billion in business value for organizations served, including Fortune 500 companies. Businesses and industries range from technology (including R&D and AI) to entertainment, financial services, and healthcare, government, social media, and more.

Graffius leads the professional services firm Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, along with its subsidiary Exceptional Agility. These consultancies offer strategic and tactical advisory, training, embedded talent, and consulting services to public, private, and government sectors. They help organizations enhance their capabilities and results in agile, project management, program management, portfolio management, and PMO leadership, supporting innovation and driving competitive advantage. The consultancies confidently back services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Graffius is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.

He is the author of two award-winning books.
Organizations around the world invite Graffius to speak on tech (including AI), agile, project management, program management, portfolio management, and PMO leadership. He has developed and delivered unique and compelling talks and workshops. To date, Graffius has delivered 91 sessions across 25 countries. Select examples of events include Agile Trends Gov, BSides (Newcastle Upon Tyne), Conf42 Quantum Computing, DevDays Europe, DevOps Institute, DevOpsDays (Geneva), Frug’Agile, IEEE, Microsoft, Scottish Summit, Scrum Alliance RSG (Nepal), Techstars, and W Love Games International Video Game Development Conference (Helsinki), and more. With an average rating of 4.81 (on a scale of 1-5), sessions are highly valued.

Prominent businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities have featured Graffius and his work including content from his books, talks, workshops, and more. Select examples include:
  • Adobe,
  • American Management Association,
  • Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute,
  • Bayer,
  • BMC Software,
  • Boston University,
  • Broadcom,
  • Cisco,
  • Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts Germany,
  • Computer Weekly,
  • Constructor University Germany,
  • Data Governance Success,
  • Deimos Aerospace,
  • DevOps Institute,
  • EU's European Commission,
  • Ford Motor Company,
  • GoDaddy,
  • Harvard Medical School,
  • Hasso Plattner Institute Germany,
  • IEEE,
  • Innovation Project Management,
  • Johns Hopkins University,
  • Journal of Neurosurgery,
  • Lam Research (Semiconductors),
  • Leadership Worthy,
  • Life Sciences Trainers and Educators Network,
  • London South Bank University,
  • Microsoft,
  • NASSCOM,
  • National Academy of Sciences,
  • New Zealand Government,
  • Oracle,
  • Pinterest Inc.,
  • Project Management Institute,
  • SANS Institute,
  • SBG Neumark Germany,
  • Singapore Institute of Technology,
  • Torrens University Australia,
  • TBS Switzerland,
  • Tufts University,
  • UC San Diego,
  • UK Sports Institute,
  • University of Galway Ireland,
  • US Department of Energy,
  • US National Park Service,
  • US Tennis Association,
  • Veleučilište u Rijeci Croatia,
  • Verizon,
  • Virginia Tech,
  • Warsaw University of Technology,
  • Wrike,
  • Yale University,
  • and many others.

Graffius has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional standards. He was a member of the team which produced the
Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Graffius was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition, The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition, and The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI’s Congress. Beyond the PMI, Graffius also served as a member of the review team for two of the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gatherings.

Graffius has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds eight professional certifications:

  • Certified SAFe 6 Agilist (SA),
  • Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster (CSP-SM),
  • Certified Scrum Professional - Product Owner (CSP-PO),
  • Certified ScrumMaster (CSM),
  • Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO),
  • Project Management Professional (PMP),
  • Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and
  • IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL).

He is an active member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

He divides his time between Los Angeles and Paris, France.

Thought Leader | Public Speaker | Agile Scrum Book | Agile Transformation Book | Blog | Photo | X | LinkedIn | Email

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How to Cite This Article


Graffius, Scott M. (2025, March 21).
Reporting Errors in 'Frontiers in Public Health': A Case Study. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/dropbox-taps-into-scott-m-graffius-expertise-in-strategic-planning.html.

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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)


DOI: (coming soon)


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Content Acknowledgements

This article includes brief excerpts from content ('12 Tricks for Running a Retrospective Meeting that People Actually Enjoy') by Dropbox company Nira, attributed and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis. Dropbox name and mark are the property of Dropbox Inc. Nira is the property of Dropbox Inc.

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Post-Publication Notes

If there's an update after this article is published, the information will appear here.

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Copyright

Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.

Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.






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