> success largely depends on the skill and experience of the individuals involved.

Yes. Well sort of. The key insight here is that in software at least, this is a pre-requisite anyhow. If you don't have skilled and/or experienced people, nothing will save you.

So you might as well tailor your process around the expectation of a certain amount of skill, because although you can't use process to save you, you can use process to f-ck up a team that would otherwise perform well.

However, my practical experience with agile includes taking a team of so-called low-performers and turning the team into one of the highest performing teams within the organisation. Using agile. (No fauxgile, no scrum, no standups, etc.)