Agile Myth Busters at Serena Tag 2008

I blogged much of the Serena Tag 2008 conference. This was post eight about Serena’s moves into Agile led by Jeff McKenna and the Agilistas. While waiting for the start, I listened to the Stones mashed up with Queen. This mashing up of music greats was constant theme of the conference music. Nice job. Now there is a video of some local high school kids creating graffiti style backgrounds for the event. Serena also gave us cow bells with the More Cowbell! label. Rene Bonvanie kicked off the program designed to squash some Agile myths.

Jeff McKenna (see above) came on to the sound of cow bells to deal with these myths. He introduced the Agilistas from Valtech and Serena. Myth one: Agile means you never have to write documentation. Both sides were briefly covered. The audience was asked and 79% said it is false. This is also the position of Serena and Valtech. However, documentation can be produced at the right time when the system is ready. There is less editing and revisions.

Myth Two: Agile is more disciplined than other methods. Again, both sides were briefly covered. The audience was asked. 43% - false and€“ 41% true. The panel believes that Agile is more disciplined but it is bottom up discipline rather than imposed discipline. There is more feedback and engagement. This is a common, and counter intuitive, aspect of enterprise 2.0. With transparency you get accountability and more discipline. It results in greater productivity. I have seen many examples of the switch to more transparent project management leading to significant increases in productivity. Below is a panel debate.

Myth Three: Agile means I can change my mind whenever I want to. Both sides were briefly covered by the panel. The audience was asked and 79% said it is false. This is also the position of Serena and Valtech. There needs to be some stability. Within the sprints in development, change needs to be on hold. Then there can be times for change.

Myth Four: Agile works on all sizes of projects. Both sides were briefly covered. The audience was asked and 59% said true. This is the position Serena and Valtech but you need to recognize that there are greater needs for large projects for them to succeed. The key differential is that you can keep Agile teams small and link together these teams to handle size. One large project had 27 teams successfully linked together.

Myth Five: Agile means teams cannot be controlled by management. Both sides were briefly covered. The audience was asked and 72% said false. Serena and Valtech agrees with this. Agile is about control through planning, monitoring, and adapting. Management is about getting more done by removing obstacles. There is a different style of management.

Myth Six: Agile requires detailed architecture and design. Again, both sides were briefly covered by the panel. The audience was asked. 55% said true but Serena and Valtech disagree with this. There is less architecture and design. You need architecture but it is not the driver. Architecture comes out in dealing with the problem and should not be a guiding factor. Let architecture emerge and be open to change.

Myth Seven: Agile is just the latest hype. Both sides were briefly covered. The audience was asked. 62% said false and Serena and Valtech agrees with this. It has been around for a while. There are demonstrated successes. Most employees like it and there are productivity improvements.

Myth Eight: Agile works on complex projects. Both sides were briefly covered. The audience was asked and 71% said true. Serena and Valtech agree with this. However, it does require more management.

Myth Nine: Agile teams do not work hard, they just play foosball. Both sides were briefly covered. The audience was asked and 75% said false. Serena and Valtech agree with this. There is a balance of work and fun required. Focus is key.

Myth Ten: Agile is only used for mission critical projects. Both sides were briefly covered. The audience was asked and 95% said false. Serena and Valtech agree with this.

Comments

[Tracy Ragan]

I would add myth 11 - Continuous Integration speeds up the builds. I see so much marketing hype around how a continuous integration process speeds up builds, but the reality is that the CI server cannot execute a C or Java compile and link script any faster then running it locally. What CI does is improve the chaining together of pre and post Application life cycle tasks around the build (compile and link), but it cannot speed up any of the activities it calls or coordinates. It cannot speed up the build anymore then it can speed up a check-out or execution of a test script.

The build script (compile and link) cannot be distributed by the CI server. So many people believe that a CI server can somehow automagically break up the build script into sub-components and speed it up by sending seperate compile and link steps to mulitple machines (called a distributed build). The build script itself does not know about other machines. It itself does not have the intelligence to sort out dependencies and leverage other machines. What speeds up the CI build is a build script that has the intelligence to run incrementally. 10 minute builds are possible if the CI build does not need to perform a "clean all" everytime the build executes.

Thanks for the great myth breaker blog!

[Jeff McKenna]

You certainly have the issue correctly stated.
And I do believe that having a CI system feels like things are done more quickly. A distributed build may be needed for through put of the CI system as you indicate.

[James]

This conference sounded mostly like preaching to the choir. As someone who was the QA part of an agile process I can say that it can be fun and rewarding, but also suck horribly. Agile needs to emphasize that it is not only a development driven process or it will fail.

[eiweißpulver]

Myth one: Agile means you never have to write documentation. Both sides were briefly covered. The audience was asked and 79% said it is false. This is also the position of Serena and Valtech. However, documentation can be produced at the right time when the system is ready. There is less editing and revisions.

[Project Management Software]

Even when you realize that you can’t do everything you used to, it is hard to give up the freedom to do whatever you want.

[IT Support Sun Valley]

Today, we are living in an era of the Internet where online project management software serves as a great tool to help us complete projects on time. Such software is the simplest tool that helps the project managers plan and manage different tasks that are involved in each project.

[Jordan 5]

God is the ultimate audience who will ultimately judge our message.

[Project Management Software]

project management is today's requirement to run any business faster.

[toronto escorts]

Project management is also helpful in education.

[supra shoes]

Was well written

[moncler jackets]

i love you post

[christian louboutin]

*All this cannot be accomplished overnight.

[UGG Shoes]

i love you post

[taobao buy]

Good luck!

[buy on taobao]

I can imagine TONS of uses for this

[Air Jordan]

The African tragedy!

[air jordan]

*Later road, we walk together.*_*

[Supra Vaider]

In my mind you are the best*_*

[supra shoes]

I wish everyone here in the first Merry Christmas!

[registry cleaners]

That is too cool! thanks.

[wholesale electronics gadgets]

We must confront future with optimism

[china wholesale store]

Live and let live. God bless anyone!

[Replica Christian Louboutin shoes]

* be happy together is good enough. I am not asking for things that I could never get.

[Careprost]

You portrayed the topic well.. Especially the concluding paragraph and the mid section made a good read... keep posting...All the best.

[Vancouver Escorts .me]

Jeff McKenna is a nice human being. I know him very well personally. He has done a lot of things which are now considered as the masterpieces of the nation.