Is "Agile" is still the best out there? If I have a team of 4-5 bright people, the best way to get them working as a team to produce software for a limited group of people is agile/scrum, right?
As usual it depends. At the risk of spouting a cliche, there are no silver bullets.
The best way to get a team working is to analyze and enumerate the current problems and shortcomings, and find a way to reduce or eliminate them.
Is the problem with your team:
* They don't make deadlines?
* Too many defects?
* Disconnect between software and customer?
* etc.
Armed with that information, you can see if any of the multitude of Agile methodologies addresses the issues you have, and is something that will work with your team. You can see if you can cherry-pick a technique here or there from a given methodology.
Asking other people what methodology is best is like asking if Java/.NET/rails/django/php/lift is the best way to write a website. You'll get a lot of opinions that sound good and point you in the right direction, but ultimately you need to roll up your sleeves, investigate the options, and make decisions based on your current circumstances.
[And ultimately, this is the problem with the current state of agile. A consultant or evangelist will promote their brand of Agile as a silver bullet without taking the time to look at your organization's problems.]
"Agile" has kind of been losing popularity as a term to "software craftsmanship" lately which seems a bit more holistic and less prescriptive than agile/scrum.
Basically it says, "take the parts that make sense from these processes and implement them." Don't do anything without thinking it out fully.
