What is Agile anyhow?
Yesterday, my friend Vlad and I were slowly
wandering through an outdoor art show in Pasadena. He asked me to give him the
defining characteristic of Agile development. He has only experienced agility
at a shop practicing XP.
Clearly the
methods all share a common vision, declared in the
Agile
Manifesto. Vlad was asking for something more
tangible.
All those agile methods: RAD,
Scrum, FDD, XP... they certainly must have a common characteristic. What might
it be? Or is there one? Take a moment and consider your
answer.
The methods address different
issues covering a wide range of topics - risk management to planning to
management to individual practices - perhaps it is unreasonable to ask what they
have in common.
When I visit a shop
practicing agility, I feel different. There is a buzzing; a kind of intentional
focus that is very clear to me. The people involved tell me that it feels
different to them as well. A gut response - but hardly a defining
characteristic.
My answer blurted out
to Vlad. "Why, it is the taking of small steps." Today I can still stand by
that answer. It certainly is a paradox. To be more agile you must take smaller
steps. A feature at a time, a test at a time, a short meeting every
day.
It appears obvious when you think
about it. If I do rock climbing, I better take small steps. The lunge is
dangerous and counter productive. Moving one hand or foot at a time works a lot
better. The marshall artist moves in such a way to always remain in balance.
She does so in small movements.
Perhaps
it is enough to remember the child who learns to walk one step at a time. We
all did it once.
Posted: Sun - November 23, 2003 at 07:11 AM