Agile considered Harmful - Nigel Runnels-Moss

Agile considered harmfulAgile considered harmful@sleepyfox, 2014@sleepyfox, 2014

@sleepyfox@sleepyfox(Vulpes Urbanus)(Vulpes Urbanus)

Who am I?

• Nigel Runnels-Moss• @sleepyfox • Founder of London Code Dojo• Agile Coach, Polyglot craftsman• 37 years programming stuf• Working in ‘Agile’ since ~1996

Agile in 1996Agile in 1996

Anti-patternsAnti-patterns

Structure

• Agile today• What went wrong• Development of methodologies• Reveal: The Next Big ThingTM

Agile today

Agile has crossed the chasm

Agile

Exh

ibit

AE

xhib

it A

Exh

ibit

BE

xhib

it B

Exh

ibit

CE

xhib

it C

Exh

ibit

DE

xhib

it D

Exh

ibit

EE

xhib

it E

We're all Agile!We're all Agile!

But what does the wordBut what does the word“Agile” “Agile”

even mean?even mean?

Name that music genreName that music genre

Best Hard Rock/Metal performance Best Hard Rock/Metal performance (Grammy Awards 1989)(Grammy Awards 1989)

You keep using that word “Metal”

I do not think it means what you think it means

Agile

• Agile Testing• Agile Modelling• Agile Project Management• Agile Transformation• Agile Business Intelligence• Agile Portfolio Management• Agile Government• 3,243 books on Agile on amazon.com

What does Agile mean?

• 'Fast'• 'Good'• 'Better'• 'Cheaper'• 'Reactive'• 'Responsive to change'?• 'Lightweight'?•

Agile?

People conflate concepts . . .• Agile methodologies• Agile principles or values• Agile tools or techniques• Linguistic meanings of 'agile'

WAT?

Wide-scale backlash

• “75% of organisations do not get the benefits they expect.”

– Ken Schwaber, founder of Scrum

Wide-scale backlash

• 60% of CSM 'graduates' felt bad about certification – Scott Ambler survey

• “Only 1% of lean initiatives meet their goals.” - Jefrey Liker, author of The Toyota Way

• “Agile development is an evangelical fad ill-suited to government IT.” - corporate IT lawyer Alistair Maughan, Computer Weekly

• “Agile Software is a cop-out.” - Mike Gualtieri, Forrester Research

Why is Agile failing?Why is Agile failing?

Olympic training diet Agile

eXtreme ProgrammingeXtreme Programming

Is TDD dead?

• “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated” – Mark Twain

• DHH, Martin Fowler and Kent Beck video-conferences recorded here:

http://j.mp/1itjhAP • “The DHH problem”, Tom Stuart

Scottish Ruby conf 2014http://codon.com/the-dhh-problem

'Lazy' Agile

Cargo Cult Agile

Agile Project Management

Kanban teamProduct manager

Testers

Developers

BusinessAnalysts

ProjectManager

Pixar

The Future of Management

For more on what is wrong with the world of Management, and what we can do about it, see the slides on speakerdeck.com here:http://j.mp/1p0FFWc

Timeline of Methodologies

321

The Next Big ThingTM!

Adoption curve

• Everett Moore, Difusion of Innovation, 1962

Development of Religious Movements

Vision

Disciples

Scripture

Dogma

Heresy

Reformation

He's not the Messiah!

What Agile really means . . .

• Individuals and Interactions

• Working Software

• Customer Collaboration

• Responding to Change

• Processes and Tools

• Comprehensive Documentation

• Contract Negotiation

• Following a Plan

The 'hidden' part

“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.”

• Uncovering• Better ways• Doing it• Helping others

Metaprogramming

Metaprogramming

Metaprogramming

Philosophy, not Methodology

• Forget Processes–Learn Principles

• Forget Methodology–Learn Context

• Forget Dogma–Learn Values

The Tao of Programming

My New Book

The Next Big ThingTM!

Drive, Dan Pink

• Autonomy• Mastery• Purpose

Programmers

10x programmers

Net-Negative Producers

Minimum Viable Programmer

MVP

Kihon, kihon, kihon

Coding and Karate

• Kihon– Simple Design, SOLID, Design Patterns

• Kata– Coding katas

• Kumite– Pair programming, real work

Thank youThank you

@sleepyfox everywhereagile-environment.com