Agile was introduced so that failure could be amortized and tracked. It makes the development process more transparent so that mid-course management corrections can be made and the corporate ship can be steered around the icebergs instead of running blindly dead into them. But in order for it to work, management must be tolerant of small failures. If it's not, then scrum will become theater with failure swept under the rug, and you'll be right back where we were, with failure becoming apparent only near product launch, when the iceberg suddenly appears out of the fog too late to avoid it.
Now, it may be a valid criticism that agile expects too much from management, that most software company managers aren't competent enough to use it. But that pretty much says we're all doomed anyway, regardless of what system (if any) is employed.
I'd be interested in your thoughts on why you feel kanban is better, since my impression is that it is essentially the same process but without sprint intervals.
