[Developers] Software development methodology

[Bert Bril]

Hi all,

I have finally found something that reflects our experience with
software development quite closely. The article is 'The New Methodology'
by Martin Fowler (a real well-known guru in OO land). Almost everything
he states is what we do in one way or another. He is comparing
traditional 'predictive' methods with new 'agile' methods.

Some 'clips':

    "* Agile methods are adaptive rather than predictive. Engineering
methods tend to try to plan out a large part of the software process in
great detail for a long span of time, this works well until things
change. So their nature is to resist change. The agile methods, however,
welcome change. They try to be processes that adapt and thrive on
change, even to the point of changing themselves.

    * Agile methods are people-oriented rather than process-oriented.
The goal of engineering methods is to define a process that will work
well whoever happens to be using it. Agile methods assert that no
process will ever make up the skill of the development team, so the role
of a process is to support the development team in their work."
"

Right.


"A predictive project is often measured by how well it met its plan. A
project that's on-time and on-cost is considered to be a success. This
measurement is nonsense to an agile environment. For agilists the
question is business value - did the customer get software that's more
valuable to them than the cost put into it. A good predictive project
will go according to plan, a good agile project will build something
different and better than the original plan foresaw."

Amen.

"Deciding that people come first is a big decision, one that requires a
lot of determination to push through. The notion of people as resources
is deeply ingrained in business thinking, its roots going back to the
impact of  Frederick Taylor's Scientific Management approach. In running
a factory, this Taylorist approach may make sense. But for the highly
creative and professional work, which I believe software development to
be, this does not hold. (And in fact modern manufacturing is also moving
away from the Taylorist model.)"

Yeah.

"Programmers are Responsible Professionals"

etc etc it goes on and on. For me it was like coming home, finally. All
those books and articles, invariably with the model of programmers that
are like monkeys that need to be fed with detailed little blocks of
specs, unable to do sensible thinking ...


Maybe the only weird thing is that I never ran into this before.

http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/newMethodology.html


/Bert

-- 
-- Bert Bril / OpendTect developer at dGB
-- Nijverheidstraat 11-2, 7511 JM Enschede, The Netherlands
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