CYA: The Agile Anti-Pattern

Here is the google search for "cya agile". 'nuff said. This is so short it may be a waste of a blog post. But I feel better getting it out there.

Getting Real

I finally completed the amazingly long series of blurbs Getting Real. The folks at 37 signals have given us many ingredients in their recipe of success. I've never worked for a small software product company or in an agile shop; so I have to imagine what it must be like. Here are some of my personal highlights:

Honesty
One theme is dealing honestly with customers/users. It's refreshing to hear companies advocate for honesty. They really believe honesty and openness with customers results in the best economic outcome for both parties.

Simplicity
Another important theme in the series is simplicity. Software has too long suffered from bloat. See! There is even a wikipedia article about it! Getting Real has a clear message regarding simplicity. Software should be focused, simple, and not attempt to do everything or please everyone. This is the only way software has a chance to do anything, any single thing well.

Reality
Running code is real. Everything else is not:

• pagespecs
• use cases
• user stories
• estimates
• project plans
• SLAs
• UML
  

Some formalization of planning and design is good. However, running code provides real feedback which is the most important factor in creating software that gives people something they want.

Why Not?

I've been asking the why question a lot lately. My mind locks in on topics like these when I encounter them as themes in different readings. Lately I've read Paul Graham's essay How to do Philosophy and Joel's blog post Five Whys. Asking why is a great exercise.

Why am I doing this?
Why did this happen?
Why am I doing it this way?
Why is this so hard?