[Arnt]

This would be an excellent point if there existed a methodology that people do manage to follow.

Some of the failure I've seen can be partly explained by people who wanted to have their cake and eat it. Who wanted, say, the promised advantages of Scrum but were not willing to pay its costs (lack of long-term plans and fixed finish dates).

That's not all. It's part of the explanation for some of the suckage I've experienced.

I do blame people for not making up their minds. The people who invented scrum were willing to give up some parts of long-term planning, and got remarkable results for that. They are not to blame when others later failed by not giving up blah.

Maybe some blame should go to conslutants who oversold the benefits of Methodologies without stressing the costs. "YES YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO THIS, IT WILL WORK BADLY OTHERWISE".

[taeric]

I take the other view. I actively blame some of the people that "invented" these methodologies.

Being introspective of your capabilities and your achievements is an extremely valuable skill that I wish more of us had. However, selling your capabilities and giving vague promises that it will help with development if you only followed these practices is a deceitful way to make some money off of your reputation.

Worse, many of them do this by attacking those that came before them, but then taking the stance that their "teachings" are above attack. And that anybody that isn't getting the same benefits they did just aren't applying themselves correctly.