Re: Agile Development, Anyone?

In my view of the world, "agile" is used for any process that is not
"waterfall", which was a very bad idea anyhow.
So it's the realisation that you really can't develop (business!) software
using a strict process, with up-front planning and requirements gathering. A
much better way is to be more "iterative", where you "grow" software,
instead of building it (like a house or a car).

The rest is all fluff.

The most important thing doing "agile" is constant refactoring your software
to keep it "healthy", so you can easily change it and add new functionality,
also 5 years from now.

This "refactoring" is, of course, never understood by management.
But without constant refactoring being "agile" (whatever that means in
practice) is of limited use, because it's quite difficult to be agile if you
have spaghetti code.

Nothing new under the sun.
Same thing as always.

You need GOOD developers, like always.
A GOOD developer "knows" when to refactor because of the "smell"...
And a team of GOOD developers do not have to be managed with process etc,
they do what is necessary to deliver.

So, what i'm saying (call me a troll if you want)...
is that "being agile" is just management speak.
You don't need process, but good developers.

However, it is kind of progress...to realize that "waterfall" is simply
stupid, for building software.
The term "waterfall" was even first introduced in a paper which exactly
stated this.
It's a naive approach to building software, using the same method as boeing
does for building airplanes.

Airplanes, cars and houses are completely different things ..

Programming is more like writing a book than building a car.
E.g., coding (as opposed to designing) is often compared to building a car.
Which it is not. The "building" is done by the compiler.

A program is a specification, a detailed design, a blueprint.
So programming is designing, not building. It's not repeatable and it takes
creative effort.
So a team of programmers is better managed like a R&D dept, which means not
too much "process"





On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 4:14 PM, Morgan, Paul <Paul.Morgan@xxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

We're making a big push into Agile here at Staples with a huge cultural
shift involved. All the old roles don't fit anymore (project managers,
business analysts, quality assurance) so everyone is unsure and anxious
about what they are supposed to do in the new process. If you stay flexible
and accept some other ways of doing things it works out ok. IMHO that's the
whole point of Agile - doing what works and is needed, stop doing what
doesn't work or isn't needed.

How do you define success?

Paul Morgan

Principal Programmer Analyst
IT Supply Chain/Replenishment

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:
midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Sam_L
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 9:07 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Agile Development, Anyone?

Is anyone using the Agile Development methodology? Successfully?

Sam
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