Archive for the ‘Methodology’ Category

“We Look to Scientists to Settle Them”

April 5, 2011

A quick follow-up to my blog post on 4/4.  I just realized as I read this post by Laurent Bossavit, in which the author draws parallels between scientific method and the software development process discussion, applies to my question in my “Fool” post of how much we have to empirically evaluate our own opinions of “how to do.”  I’m not sure I was clear in that post, but I concluded that eventually we might have to “play the Fool” and just decide in the moment.

Reading Bossavit’s article increases my confidence in that conclusion as he says:

The trouble with opinions is that everyone has their own; you can always find one to suit any given prejudice. “Test-driven development reduces defect count”, says one expert; “test-driven development will wreck your architecture”, says the next.

Knowledge cannot be disseminated merely by everyone having a blog of their own. Blogs are great for voicing opinions – are they ever – and for having debates, but it’s unhealthy for debate to go on forever. We look to scientists for settling them.

(more…)

I’m Not Gonna Force Agile On You

March 31, 2011

I had the experience recently of encountering Fear and Loathing of Agile in a few people.  It made me realize that in my writing this deck for executives how important it is to understand that everyone wants process; they just don’t want your process.  Kind of like religion. They worry you’ll try to convert them to something that goes against everything they stand for. And ironically that, I believe, is at the heart of why an Agile approach actually can work better.  It allows for room for your process.

I’m picking on Dr. Alistair Cockburn this time because I’m finding the material I need to accomplish this end.  From this page on his site, “Balancing Lightness and Sufficiency”: (more…)

Source Material for a Deck on Agile for Executives

March 29, 2011

I thought to collect some links here for use as source material in writing a short deck for Executives (in Advertising or Marketing) describing Agile.  (UPDATE: Note – the deck is not yet written – this is my raw research).

My criteria for quoting from these (or being inspired by these) is that the material has to be value-focused.  Why Agile?  What’s the benefit?  How is it better than what I’m doing now?  And must apply outside of software development. Maybe apply directly to marketing.

I think I also need to give very high-level descriptions of Crystal Clear, Kanban and Scrum, possibly XP and possibly Lean.  But I want my deck to be very, very short and succinct.

I may update this post over time.

Here is my first list at 8 AM on 3/29:

Agile Scout’s “Agile is NOT a Methodology”

Agile Methodology.com’s “Agile Methodology”

Dr. Alistair Cockburn “Balancing Lightness with Sufficiency”

Dmitri Maex for Ogivly’s DoubleThink “Agile Markerting Part II: Learnings from Product Development”

Decks by Jeff Patton – read the first deck

Dr. Jeff Sutherland on Agile Principles and Values (his site has great stuff too, but this is at Microsoft)

Jason Yip’s article “It’s Not Just Standing Up: Patterns of Daily Stand-up Meetings”

John Paul Titlow for ReadWriteWeb.com “What is Agile Commerce”

Excellent article by Ken Schwaber on driving value for business titled “Major Releases are a Failure”

Lyssa Adkins’ “What is Agile?”

Michael Sahota’s “Agile Fits Better in Some Company Cultures Than Others”

Scrum Alliance’s “The Scrum Framework in 30 Seconds”

Scott Ambler’s “Bureaucracy Isn’t Discipline”

Scott Brinker (Chief Martec) “Ideas for an Agile Marketing Manifesto”

Scrum.org’s Scrum Guide page

Tobias Mayer’s “Simple Scrum” , “Scrum: A New Way of Thinking” and “The Essence of Scrum”

VersionOne’s “What is Agile” (although pretty development-centric)

Suggestions more than welcome.

Updated 3/29 – 3:45 PM – with articles by Schwaber, Sutherland, Cockburn, and Patton. Alphabetized.  Hm. The list is getting too long – probably not a good page for executives, but good for us detailed people to find source material.

Is Agile Communist?

March 27, 2011

Whenever we start talking about “collectives” and not being completely in the realm of the individual, we inevitably see comparisons to Communism.

So I found this very interesting article written in 2007 called “Does XP/Scrum Violate the ‘Agile Manifesto?’” written by an anonymous blogger who refers to themselves as the “Software Maestro.” (I have not delved more deeply into this blog to figure out if they de-cloaked at any point).  I also found this article, on agileadvice.com, also from 2007, which argues back in a very cogent, unemotional, way.

Ramses II photo by Iamimesis

Ramses II photo by Iamimesis

Software Maestro’s article aligning Agile with Communism should be considered as its very interesting viewpoint starts to pierce some of this puzzling over leadership and the role of the individual within the Agile world.  It’s back to the Big Idea, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and the need for leadership and vision for the team.  Who gets to have a vision?  Just the Product Owner? Just the Master? Just Steve Jobs?  Just George Lois? And so on. (more…)