http://www.agileinsider.org reality bytes... Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:10:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Thanks to Ward Cunningham, we now have a wonderful metaphor "Technical Debt" which explains the common problem of skipping a little bit of design or missing out that little bit of refactoring to meet a deadline.  Whenever we cut corners there is a very good chance we are taking on ... http://www.agileinsider.org/2009/09/functional-debt/ I'll admit it, I'm not 100% agile since I tend to like solutions. I would prefer a problem to solve, but if a problem is intangible I often find a solution is a great way to explore the potential and help express the underlying problem. It is worth noting that ... http://www.agileinsider.org/2009/08/vision-solution-problem/ I've posted a few entries now about my unease with the fuzziness surrounding Agile and how I feel it needs some clarity so I thought I'd have a quick stab at it. The following commandments would be my first stab at such a list which would apply to any person who ... http://www.agileinsider.org/2009/07/ten-commandments-of-agile/ [caption id="attachment_165" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="DNA"][/caption] I've been researching material to support an article on my company blog entitled "Agile Dictators" and it left me thinking about how Agile started in the first place. The more I reflect on this, the more I am left feeling that Agile is actually a mutation in ... http://www.agileinsider.org/2009/06/could-agile-have-evolved/ I've not tried wave, but I'm already loving it, I can see immediately how it addresses one of my wishes from a previous post... But I'm hating the wait. I had always looked to Google as a very pioneering company and certainly assumed they applied agile principles. ... http://www.agileinsider.org/2009/06/love-wave-hate-google/ [caption id="attachment_143" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="TDD found the simple solution ;)"][/caption] Test Driven is a loaded term and means different things to different people.  I much prefer the term Test First which clearly states that the test comes before the implementation.  However, for me, the value is not necessarily in creating an ... http://www.agileinsider.org/2009/06/real-value-of-test-first/ Here's my little user story: As a blogger, I want to use Threely as my url shortener. So that I get more letters on Twitter. Pretty simple story, and also very simple to implement, but impossible to test?  I can certainly test the API to twitter, but given I use a wordpress plugin (developed ... http://www.agileinsider.org/2009/06/big-red-button/ [caption id="attachment_127" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The MMF wasn't quite complete."][/caption] I've seen plenty of fancy graphs demonstrating how agile provides faster ROI through early delivery and while this can certainly be true in some cases, it doesn't necessarily hold true for all cases. Just because a feature is done, doesn't mean you could, ... http://www.agileinsider.org/2009/06/delivering-early/ In a recent tweet from @EstherDerby, she states Some ppl complain agile only works w/ highly skilled developers. Never been clear 2 me that ANY dev. method works w/o highly skilled devs. I think the subtle distinction is that agile REQUIRES skilled developers to be successful, whereas some of the "heavier" methodologies ... http://www.agileinsider.org/2009/05/agile-requires-skilled-developers/ I'm a very strong advocate for slack. I believe introducing slack as a policy improves the overall quality produced during productive hours compared with the traditional approach of applying constant pressure. Just like pair programming, it is actually very difficult to get managers to understand the real benefits ... http://www.agileinsider.org/2009/05/slack-is-important/