Why does Agile work ? Yesterday I missed a session on 'why Agile' works in Agile Dev (West) conference. (https://adcwest.techwell.com/program/concurrent-sessions/why-agile-works-and-how-screw-it-0).
Just wanted to share my thoughts on "why Agile works".
Just wanted to share my thoughts on "why Agile works".
Waterfall Assumes and expects "perfection"
Waterfall model assumes 'perfection'. It expects perfect requirements, then perfect design, then perfect code. Usually that doesn't happen but going back and correcting becomes difficult because of this expectation of 'perfection'.
Agile assumes and expects "mistakes will happen"
Agile assumes that 'mistakes will happen'. So all Agile practices focus on 'detecting mistakes early and fixing them as required'. It assumes that requirements will change. Hence Agile practitioners advise that "don't spend time on big upfront requirement and design". If requirements change then this big upfront requirement spec and design is a 'waste'. To minimize such waste all Agile practices are use some kind 'fail fast' mechanism. This implementation of 'fail fast' mechanisms reduces waste and hence cost at the same time it improves the quality of outcome. Because of this 'mistakes will happen' mindset, Agile works better than waterfall in practice. Remember Toyota production systems is also based on implementing 'Fail Fast' mechanisms
So what is the 'guaranteed' way of ensuring 'Agile failure' ?
Bring the 'perfectionist' mindset of Waterfall to Agile. Managers and teams who try to bring this 'perfectionist mindset' to Agile ensure that Agile/Scrum do not work for them.
