I completely agree that Scrum isn't suitable for all software development, and that there's no silver bullet. If it doesn't work, then that's totally okay – don't use it. Doesn't mean it's 'broken' or 'dead', as so many claim.
Scrum is a system in the sense that it provides a framework upon which you can build a sensible process. Not every aspect works for every environment, and that's totally fine! It's the key principle of agile development.
I think what's happened is that so many places have completely ballsed-up the implementations of processes like Scrum, and that's given it a bad name. People naturally push back against that. I do find it a little frustrating that the two issues are conflated so often.
As an aside – at it's core, Scrum is just a process that breaks development work down into small, actionable parts. In most cases, that's an internal implementation issue, and is still compatible with meeting fixed external deadlines. Again, it's situation-dependent, but that's why it's advisable to avoid agile-by-numbers and implement the parts that work.
Scrum is a system in the sense that it provides a framework upon which you can build a sensible process. Not every aspect works for every environment, and that's totally fine! It's the key principle of agile development.
I think what's happened is that so many places have completely ballsed-up the implementations of processes like Scrum, and that's given it a bad name. People naturally push back against that. I do find it a little frustrating that the two issues are conflated so often.
As an aside – at it's core, Scrum is just a process that breaks development work down into small, actionable parts. In most cases, that's an internal implementation issue, and is still compatible with meeting fixed external deadlines. Again, it's situation-dependent, but that's why it's advisable to avoid agile-by-numbers and implement the parts that work.