AgileAttitudes Article
 
 
 

Vol 01 Issue 07- An Insight and a Challenge

  
 
Back to the list of articles Agile Attitudes Volume 1, Issue 7 Sept. 2, 2004 A free bi-weekly email newsletter Brought to you by Agile Rules consulting www.agilerules.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to Agile Attitudes, a newsletter of ideas, insights and technical tips that help people find better ways to develop software. Feel free to share this with anyone - just be sure you send or print the whole thing, including the copyright notice. Directions for managing your subscription are below. O><O><O><O><O><O Nancy V. will be speaking at the Embedded Systems Conference. See below for details. Boston SPIN is having Jeff Sutherland as their speaker on Sept. 14, in Burlington, MA. Jeff is using Scrum to manage something like 8 projects at Patient Keeper, and he has streamlined it so that each project takes 10 minutes per day of his time, and only 1 minute per day of each developer's time for creating the status info necessary to control the project. See http://www.boston-spin.org/ for details. O><O><O><O><O><O An Insight and a Challenge Summer vacationtime's over and we've returned from our unannounced hiatus. We have much to report from our participation in the two agile software conferences - the June Agile Development Conference and the more recent XP Agile Universe conference. In our last news- letter in July, Nancy summarized the highlights of ADC. Since then, I'm happy to report that her own ADC paper has stirred some buzz, but I'm sure she is too modest to admit it. You can check it out on our web site. Speaking of buzz, the theme at last month's XPAU was set by Mary Poppendieck's Keynote. In it she explained how new technologies come into the mainstream only after early development by "enthusiasts," and continued support by "visionaries." The next group to adopt the technology is termed the "pragmatists." Pragmatists are those who have a need to accomplish a difficult result, and have become discouraged by capabilities of the current mainstream technology. They are numerous enough so that their adoption of the technology is the entry point into the mainstream. However, unlike the enthusiasts, who develop the technology by dedication to an ideal and daring to try out a new idea or a new combination of existing methods, and visionaries, who propagate the ideals because of a firmness of belief in a better way, pragmatists have a "show me" attitude. They will adopt the technology only if they're convinced that there is significant evidence that the technology delivers as promised. Thus there is a chasm of uncertainty that the new technology must cross before it can be considered acceptable in the mainstream of the applicable industry. Mary was speaking, of course, of Agile software development as the technology. When I arrived at the conference, I was suspicious that there would be a lot of "preaching to the choir." When I left I was uplifted by the realization that the Agile community can seize the opportunity to convince those pragmatists that Agile practices are the way to go. This opportunity was spurred by Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin's challenge to the attendees to take a critical eye to all the purported "successes" of agile projects. Instead of looking at them as technical successes from the worker bees' or tech leads' viewpoint, their evaluation must be from a business perspective. It is only then that the pragmatists of our industry will feel confident in adopting Agile software development practices. O><O><O><O><O><O More articles on Agile software topics at http://www.agilerules.com Within our company we have a sub-specialty in embedded systems. Our site has articles on embedded XP and we support a discussion list focused on the use of agile methods for building embedded software. The list signup info is at http://www.agilerules.com/mailinglists.phtml O><O><O><O><O><O To help you get started with in-depth research into Agile Attitudes topics, we have added a Library section to our web site at http://www.agilerules.com/library.phtml Order using our links and receive discounts up to 30%! O><O><O><O><O><O If you enjoyed this issue or found it useful, forward it to a friend! Help spread the word about better ways to build software. Invite your friends and colleagues to join our growing reader community at http://www.agilerules.com/mailinglists.phtml O><O><O><O><O><O Looking for a speaker for your next corporate or society meeting? We present dynamic, informative programs on topics of interest to managers and technical staff in their transition to more flexible, robust ways to create software. O><O><O><O><O><O Want to reprint this issue in your company or society newsletter? For permission to reprint any of the articles, contact us at info@agilerules.com. O><O><O><O><O><O Public Appearances Nancy Van Schooenderwoert will present on "Embedded Extreme Programming Experience Report and Clinic" at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston, September 13 - 16, 2004. Her presentation is on Sept 14,. Earlier that day. James Grenning of Object Mentor is also giving a talk entitled "Extreme Programming and Embedded Software Development" See http://www.esconline.com/boston/ Note that that's also the date that Jeff Sutherland will be speaking. Somehow, we intend to make all three! If you would like to receive an email as soon as we know of an event in the Boston area of interest to the agile software community, you can sign up for the announcements list at http://www.agilerules.com/mailman/listinfo/agileannounce O><O><O><O><O><O Your feedback is welcome! Send feedback to info@agilerules.com To manage your subscription: http://www.agilerules.com/mailman/listinfo/agileattitudes O><O><O><O><O><O Brought to you by Agile Rules consulting 162 Marrett Road, Lexington MA 02421 Copyright (c) 2004 Agile Rules info@agilerules.com O><O><O><O><O><O Privacy notice: We will not release a subscriber's address to any third party for any reason. This is a strictly opt-in newsletter. No one is ever subscribed without their explicit request. _______________________________________________ AgileAttitudes mailing list AgileAttitudes@agilerules.com http://www.agilerules.com/mailman/listinfo/agileattitudes </plaintext> </td id="bodytable_r1_c3_body"> </tr id="bodytable_r1"> </table id="bodytable">