Agile’s Hard
July 27th, 2006[ Software Development ]
Nice quick read sent over by Bobby, Why Is Agile Development Hard?
Don’t let the title of this fool you. While some people may view it that way, this is not an article about why agile processes suck. This is a great little endorsement article about why you want agile if you’re a business owner. To do that, however, you need a team that can actually be successful in an agile process. You’ll only find failure if you take an existing team working in a traditional process and shuffle them over to agile. It won’t work.
Agile is much more difficult. Ultimately it’s about the people. Agile requires intelligent people who are intrinsically motivated and self-managing. You need technical people who are willing to act like business owners. Traditional processes can be simpler and requires less thought, well I think the author summed it up…
“YOU HAVE TO USE YOUR BRAIN!”
His other points:
- Don’t Mistake Activity for Progress
- Show Me Working Features
- Learn to Say “No”
- You Must Lay the Proper Groundwork to Be Agile
- Agile Is a State of Mind!
“In agile development, you (and everyone else) are charged with the rather difficult responsibility of always challenging yourself to ensure you are doing the smartest thing possible that will bring about the best solution for the current project (and within its context).”
While we are far from being agile bigots, we certainly are an agile software company, based on these tenets. We value working deliverable software over activity.
This places a big burden at the front of our funnel during our hiring process. We have to ensure we only bring in people that want to use their brain today and three years from now in the middle of a long project.
If you work in a traditional software process and find yourself pissed off because the process prevents you from doing what you know is right for the business, well email me your resume because we’ve all been there and we’re looking for you.