Attitudes to Abolish When Adopting Agile
Sep 30, 2011
Agile software development is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.
The whole idea is to change attitudes and mindsets.
- Deliver small pieces for a quick client feedback, as small as possible. Take a business stand-point versus a technical one;
- Team work by collaborating together, with ownership of deliverable;
- Re-factoring. Design reusable, efficient, maintainable code; (my personal favorite)
- Abolish "this was my task, my work is done" mentality. The work is done when EVERYONE in the team has completed the piece. Again, value culture versus task culture where work is collaborative. Each task is a team responsibility;
- Abolish the "what should I do next?" question;
- Abolish "managers have the last word" approach;
- Abolish "if it runs, it's ready, it's done". This limits ownership and productivity. Instead, define effective "done" status.