Re: The main issue are those who turned it into a sort of religion...
To be fair, I can understand why you would proffer such an opinion... By definition, a Belief is something that can't be proven - otherwise it's just a fact!
But, to understand your complaint, it's Lean-Agile Values and Beliefs that guide those Lean-Agile Principles, these Principles are then applied to form their own specific Practices (by the people doing the actual work - NOT top-down Management, far removed from "what's what"). So it's the Beliefs, Values and Principles that can make things seem quasi religious.
To explain why they're needed, a Practice which works very well for one Team / Department / Company / Organization / Hospital / whatever, might not work at all - due to local reasons - when attempts are made to apply the specific practices directly elsewhere. This is why an understanding of the basic Principles is required, because the Principles CAN ALWAYS be applied.
For example, the whole point of a "Daily Scrum" is NOT to answer 3 questions when standing up; the point is for the Team to gain a Shared Understanding of the current state, to formulate a Plan for the next 24 hours, to check things are on track, and make changes if they aren't... How you do this (the Practices you employ) is entirely up to you... So, if your processes aren't working, change them!
Given that "working software is the only real measure of progress.." and that Empiricism is based upon Feedback loops (i.e. checking your assumptions) ; if your Sprints last longer than 4 weeks, are you increasing or decreasing the number of Feedback opportunities you will have in a given year?
"Scrum is a framework for creating complex products in complex environments..." People always make excuses about complexity; why not try breaking the complexity down into smaller problems?
"Oh, no.. Couldn't possible do that!..."
Oh, yes, you can.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
