The Wrong Questions about Agile

When it comes to Agile, people often ask the wrong questions. I’ve used the term “wrong question” before, and it brought out the trolls, so let’s start with that. The trolls usually scream: “there is no such thing as a wrong question,” and then they launch into a discourse on why I’m an idiot.

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What is Agile? The elevator pitch.

Sitting around the Thanksgiving table, somebody (very intelligent, but a lawyer, so has no experience whatever with software or manufacturing) asked “What exactly is ‘Agile’?” Given the situation, I couldn’t launch into a 30-minute lecture :-), so I was stymied. Somebody chirped in that that Agile was about short cycles etc., etc., but talking about…

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#NoEstimates, An Introduction.

Estimates are waste. Not only are they not necessary, but they introduce dysfunction into the team. We should really just stop doing them. This thinking comes from the #NoEstimates movement (of which I’m a card-carrying member), which came onto the scene a couple years ago when @WoodyZuill created the #NoEstimates hash tag on Twitter. #NoEstimates…

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Posts from Dr. Dobb’s Journal

I wrote for DDJ (may it rest in peace) for many many years. Towards the end, I wrote a blog on agile-related topics. I haven’t gotten around to moving the actual articles over here, but here are links to them in the DDJ archives: Agile Certifications Are Actively Destructive Endless Flexibility, The Enemy of Agile The Anti…

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