I was speaking with an old colleague that works for ESRI (who, for the purposes of this post wanted to remain anonymous).  We got around to discussing what the results of the Agile GIS Survey meant and of the course the main question was "Why is GIS slow to adopt agile?".  He said he couldn't speak for the industry as a whole but he could tell me why ESRI has been a little slow to adopt it.  He related ESRI's adoption to the way Burger King selects sites for their restaurants. 

You see, McDonald's spends a ton of money, time and research on finding the best location for their restaurants.  Once they make a decision, they quickly build out the location and get down to the business of selling...well, I guess you'd call them hamburgers.  Burger King waits to see how the new McDonald's location does.  If it does well, Burger King sets up a location in very close proximity to the successful McDonald's.  Burger may get to the market a little later, but they get there (this strategy hasn't been so successful for Burger King, in fact, they've lost market share in the past few years and have fallen to the #3 burger chain after Micky D's and Wendy's).

So, according to my "ESRI friend", ESRI is a lot like Burger King and the mainstream development community is McDonald's.  He see's ESRI as very conservative in terms of adopting new technologies and methodologies unless they're well proven.  Wait until other folks figure out what works and then head in that direction.  Now, there's nothing wrong with this approach.  A lot of organizations do this, but don't count on getting out ahead of anyone this way.  In my humble opinion, I think it would be better if ESRI, or any other organization decides to lead.  Find your own location.  Don't wait for others to show you the way...it might not be the right path for you.

In light of this, I'd have to say that it was a welcome breath of fresh air to hear an indication at the Developers Summit that ESRI has been adopting some agile practices.  Hopefully for ESRI, there's no Wendy's sneaking up behind them!