What Art Thou, Agile?

Written by Safwan Kamarrudin

If you are in software development, chances are you have experienced the following scenario over and over. You spend months, sometimes years gathering business requirement, designing the specification and developing the software. And when the time finally comes for the software to be tested or delivered, the customer suddenly realizes that it does not quite meet its needs. Hence begins the seemingly endless journey of over-arching rework that drives team members insane until the project fails to meet the deadline and goes over budget. 

Some blame it on the technology. Others pin it on the people or even process. We at Readify believe all three factors play a role.

People
A process is only as good as the people involved. Having a team of smart and dedicated individuals with little to no process trumps a group of mediocre people with the best process.

Process
When a process proves to be ineffective, it needs to change. However, instead of putting in place more stringent procedures, more often than not making things leaner will have a more positive impact. After all, the whole point of having a process is not to create a command-and-control environment but to remove impediments and create a conducive environment for team members to flourish.

Technology
Platforms and tools are cool, but they are just a means to an end. A pragmatic approach to technology entails not only choosing the right tool for the job but also knowing how best to utilize it to solve business problems and help team members become more productive so that more effort can be expended on delivering business value.

This is what agile is all about. It is not so much an alternative software development methodology as it is a mindset that puts
 
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

Having said that, it is important not to drink too much agile Kool-Aid. It is all too easy to jump on the bandwagon of something that is new and shiny. If you have a methodology that works well for you, stick with it. Being agile is not really the point, doing things better is.