I just off the phone with an old High School chum. We got to talking about Bottom-Up Thinking as a way to set direction when a situation is unclear or changing too quickly. It was in the context of career, so I gave a lot of unsolicited advice … ‘natch.
I think groups going Agile need the one sheet Principles Behind The Agile Manifesto. Short and clear, it has a good chance of galvanizing change. In true contrarian manner though, I’d like to point out why blindly following these principles is a bad idea.
One of the latest fads in programming is Agile Software Development. Most fads, after a while, take on a disturbing quality as the bandwagon swells to the teetering point. We’ve gotten to that disturbing evolutionary point with Agile Programming. Talks and material from Linda Rising are the clearest indicators I’ve seen that Agile Programming’s days as a fad are numbered.
If you’ve read my discussion of using analytics in design project management, you might be asking how anyone can plan for a design project. After all, if I claim that design is a non-deterministic process, how could it possibly be planned for? Design would then be a pretty bad business risk, right? Short answer: yup.