August 17, 2007

Zealotry and Agile as the "One True Way"

by Brian Donahue

My poor wife.  She is a sounding board for all my diatribes about software development and project management, puts up with my constant expenditures to "improve our technological infrastructure" and even allows me to leave town for the occasional conference or training (ok, maybe this last one is actually a plus for her, too).  Lately, since I've started my own companyBroken Link: http://www.vitreosolutions.com/, and have even less people to bitch talk to, she has been getting an even bigger earful.  She recently even helped me craft a proposal for a potential client.  Today, she really surprised me by pointing me to a great blog I hadn't seen before: Leading AnswersBroken Link: http://leadinganswers.typepad.com/leading_answers/. What??  You mean she actually listens to all my babbling, too? 

Leading Answers looks like a great source of info and inspiration about all things agile and software development related.  The post that I enjoyed most in my initial reading was Keeping Agile Real (and avoid losing people before you begin)Broken Link: http://leadinganswers.typepad.com/leading_answers/2007/08/keeping-agile-r.html.  The parenthetical in the title is the most poignant.  If you are trying to sell agile - to your team, company, or to clients - you ought to give this a read.  Much has been written about Agile Zealotry, and the friction that can be created when a small group is trying to promote Agile practices to others.  This article provides some solid advice on how not to turn your debate into an "Agile rules, and Waterfall sucks" conversation, or an "Agile is the new way, the one true way, and waterfall is MordorBroken Link: http://colbertondemand.com/videos/The_Colbert_Report/Lord_of_the_Rings." 

I can think of about, oh... a bazillion times I should have heeded some of this advice, including a few spots in that proposal I sent out!