Robert Smyth's Blog

Agile Development

Agile development is a style of software development that emphasises close collaboration between developers and the customer, early and frequent deliveries (incremental development), face to face communications, and coding for change.

For a better understanding of agile development, look at these sites:

While there is no such thing as a process, even in general, that is applicable to all teams and all applications, it is clear that agile development is a dominant player in software development today, even if those doing it do not know they are doing it. Agile development is to software development what waterfall is to older "traditional" engineering disciplines like civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering. I am qualified as a professional engineer and work on embedded software development. It is my opinion that it is a software development is not an engineering discipline, it is just too different. Try refactoring a bridge!

If you hear the following at your work place then agile development is for you:

"By the time we write the spec it is obsolete!"

"We spent months developing to specification and the customer says it is not what they wanted!"

"The customer keeps changing his/her mind!"

"The customer does not know what he/she wants until he/she sees it!"

I think that agile development is a constructive way of crossing the river by swimming with the flow, not against it.

If you have ever tried explaining agile development to BDUF programmers suffering Newtonian neurosis you will feel recognition with:

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
- Gandhi

Quotes that highlight what agile development is all about:

Agility is not an inescapable law of purity, but a pragmatic principle of effectiveness.
- Marc Hamann (Author of Selling The Invisible)

Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way to teach.
- Albert Einstein

All methodologies are based on fear.
- Kent Beck

If we asked the customers what they wanted, it would be devastating for the project.

- team lead on a project that shall remain nameless.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
- Alan Kay

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Last updated 4th September, 2004, Email: robsmyth at bigpond.net.au