Is Agile scalable?

Question

I heard that Agile does not scale and only works for small projects. Is this true? Or is Agile actually scalable? If it is (scalable) then how come most references and most project management specialists claim it does not scale, and how come there is not a single large project that is so far done using Agile?

Answer 1

Think about it this way, if you split a large project into smaller projects, then yes, Agile is scalable, because Agile will be applied on these small, interconnected projects.

However, you can't just manage a large project using Agile without splitting it, so, from this perspective, Agile is not scalable.

Answer 2

Agile is definitely scalable.  You can have many small Agile groups (analyst, programmer, QA) working together and either working on separate projects or on different parts of the same project. I'd call that scalable....I don't immediately have an example but I am sure some large projects have been done with Agile.