What’s it all about, Agile?
You can’t go anywhere these days without hearing about Agile software development. My colleagues at small start-ups and even enterprises like Yahoo! and PayPal are experimenting with it. Everyone’s doing it, but is it right for you?
Before we answer that question, let’s talk about Agile and where it came from. Agile was developed by 17 prominent members of the software development community as a response to “waterfall” methods that they considered heavyweight. The team established a four-point manifesto to guide a more lightweight, iterative and interactive process:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
Sounds good, doesn’t it? Does anyone really want to work on heavy documentation, planning cycles, etc.? Even the most Bell-shaped heads that I worked with at AT&T would tell you over a beer that they’d be happy to chuck it all if they could. And, everyone I worked with at any self-respecting start-up holds these values. But, you can’t shape your development process based on values alone. Read more…
