Agile vs Fragile: A Disciplined Approach or an Excuse for Chaos
Posted on Jan, 2013 by Admin
On February 11-13, 2001, a group of seventeen people met at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in Utah. This group shared a common desire to improve their skills on the ski slopes and to improve the software they developed. Their collaboration created the Agile Software Development Manifesto. The participants of this meeting represented different perspectives on software development, but they all agreed that they wanted to develop an alternative to long project cycles. They may have discussed the concepts of what makes a team agile vs fragile, but they left their meeting with a Manifesto for Agile Software Development signed by all participants:
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
individuals and interactions over processes and tools
working software over comprehensive documentation
customer collaboration over contract negotiation
responding to change over following a planThat is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.
Source: agilemanifesto.org
The Agile Manifesto establishes a set of 12 principles aimed at increasing the speed at which customers can realize the value of a development undertaking. It focuses on delivering quick hits rather than protracted development timelines usually associated with traditional development methodologies, such as Waterfall. While the principles of Agile are a refreshing focus on delivery, they are often hijacked to become an excuse for the undisciplined development organization. The Agile framework’s focus on agility is anything but undisciplined, as illustrated by principles such as Test Driven Development (TDD). However, rogue development organizations have pointed to Agile as the impetus to abandon all vestiges of process, documentation, and (in many ways) quality. These organizations have added a fifth principle to the manifesto:
speed of the delivery over quality of the delivered
This series of blogs will explore characteristics of effective Agile teams, and identify the characteristics of teams that are using Agile as an excuse for poor project delivery practices. Let’s call them “Fragile” teams. We will also help answer some of the common questions that testing teams have as it relates to Agile organizations. These blog sessions will cover the following areas:
- Agile or Fragile: How to tell which your organization is
- Agile Characteristics: The characteristics of excellent Agile and Fragile teams
- Agile Manifesto: What does it mean for processes and documentation?
- Agile Testing: The role of “independent” testing in the Agile framework
- Agile Tools: Do testing tools have a place in Agile development?
- Agile Façade: Strategies for breaking down the façade
This blog article is the first in a series of 17 blog entries that have been published. In the next installment of the blog we will talk about how tell if your organization is Agile or Fragile. In the meantime…Keep on testing!
