ALT.NET Slides of my NHibernate Talk - Davy Brion shares his slides for a talk he is giving on NHibernate Agile is never 'no process" - Ian agrees with David that agile is about discipline and how Agile is getting a bad name because some are choosing

I had a disagreement with a manager at my current job over the meaning of Agile, there idea was changing backlog items in a sprint was agile development. I find people often confuse the meaning of the word with how malleable the process should be.

I would agree that agile takes a lot of discipline to do right. And it takes a lot of faith on the part of PMs, business owners, and developers alike, especially when all are so ingrained with waterfall. The worst is when a PM decides to do something to the effect of "half agile, half waterfall" and then doesn't understand why things are out of control.

I think the problem primarily revolves around most CTO's and PM's inability to come to a level of understanding about what necessary documentation.  I agree that some "agilists" try to use it as a way of nevering creating documentation to support anything they develop.  I'm struggling with this concept now in that management seems to think that we need to detail every last method and stored procedure with input/output parameters.  This type of documentation isn't necessary and this is really where the perception of Agile goes off into left field.

If you are doing Agile (AUP) right, you are probably doing Software Development wrong...

And are probably wondering why with all these great Agile Processes, Methodology, etc., why your company went out of business, and you can't find a job...

In this Economy the guys/gals that are working and companies that are hiring are the ones that are not caught up in Agile or other fads, written about in books by guys who write books for a living and not code in the real-world for a living...

The most successful Project Managers in Software Development, are those that still code or have a strong background in coding...

The most Successful Software Developers are the ones that "Absorb What Is Useful" to them and ignore the rest...

The most Successful Software Companies are those that are noted for having remarkably little or no established processes or mandated "Agile" or other methodologies...

They are truly agile because they are not burdened by "Agile" fads, and the latest processes being marketed,  or "Project Management Departments", "Executive Directors of Software Development", Q/A Departments of individuals whom have little or no Software Development Experience, Managers whom have Managers, Project Managers whom have Project managers, individuals, departments whom have either never coded or have not coded in ages... Bureaucracy ad nauseam.

These companies do not care about some stinking burn-down chart, superfluous project plan that shows each individual is currently at 60% utilization, etc.,  they care about what matters; being the First to Market and the ones getting Paid...

These companies epitomize the true "Adapt & Overcome" Entrepreneur spirit...

They do not get caught up in the latest fads written by individuals whom write books/blogs for a living...

And they are not "Google Coders"...

Anybody whom wants to "Agile" themselves out of a job or fast track their companies demise without further help from the Socialist Obama's Tax & Spend agenda, feel free to do so...

@bohemian

Like Ian, there's an interesting viewpoint under the covers here but I what I'm perceiving is that you're of an opinion that the only decent project manager is a technical one.  It's here that I'd have to disagree.  

Without getting into the discussion of the "fads" (which I generally agree with you on), it really comes down to the bureacracy that a company imposes upon their people to follow their prescribed notion of what Agile represents.

We still are contending in a world where companies are literally crippled by acheiving SOX compliance and the old timers that consider a design document more fundamentally sound over working software.

I think the Agile Manifesto for all the brillance in its simplicity is probably the more problematic piece of the puzzle.  When people are left to making their own judgements and intrepretations of things, we get what were presenting seeing in the world...a completely bastardized view and implementation of what Agile means with a cascading feature set of failures.

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Ian,

From your experience, are companies who had a bad first experience with Agile willing to give it another chance? Or do they immediately revert back to Waterfall (or whatever methodology they're initially using).

Rage, rage against the dying of the light The lack of visibility for the idea of "Alt.Net"

Bohemian comment is inflammatory, but I think he is on the right track. Agile is not a silver bullet, far from it. While it might be helpful for some companies that lack ANY discipline it may be hurtful to some other companies. Of course, these companies are then accused of being not "right" Agile. Scrummerfalls. Waterscrums. You name it.

Discipline has NOTHING to do with being Agile. If you want to be a successful in anything you have to be disciplined, be it software development or cake baking.

Developers make all the difference, even though people hate to admit it. Take a look at this:

www.agileprogrammer.com/.../16855.aspx

"Hire an agile coach". Interesting, how many successful start ups hired agile coaches to get their products to the market? Google? Facebook? Twitter?

Process is not a viable substitution to talent. Not in software development, not in any other creative industry. While an orchestra requires discipline, each individual member must be a master of his/her own instrument.

Just my 2c.