• Agile software development bases on four core values (paraphrased to make them more drastic but not change them in their meaning):

    • Proper tools are not important
    • Documentation is irrelevant
    • Don’t have a contract to adhere to
    • Do not follow any plans

    I am not surprised that this fails miserably.

    • This just in: intentionally misrepresenting something has a 100% chance of it being misrepresented.

      Let’s try again:

      • proper tools are important, but not as important as the people using them
      • documentation is important, but not as important as the software functioning correctly
      • working with the customer to accomplish their needs is more important than adhering to the letter of a contract
      • plans are important, but dogmatically applying them above the spirit of their intent is harmful
    • I’ve worked on supposed “Agile” teams that operate this way, and worked on an Agile team that actually work ridiculously well. The biggest issue with Agile isn’t the philosophy, it’s when management starts using it to cut costs. This comment is what it turns into. Notice that every single one of these points lower cost. But one of the main assumptions of Agile is that the workers control the work, managers support the workers. The places I’ve been where Agile didn’t work it was because management was unwilling to buy into this basic assumption, then use Agile as a crutch for not giving the team what they needed to be successful.

      The one successful team I was on that was Agile, the entire group of around 12 worked directly with the customer, and our manager’s role was to ask “what do you need”. It was hands down the best dev role I was ever in (before I became a teacher).