Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Agile Myths and Misunderstandings


This post links to a free PDF eBook for you! In our industry we do come across myths and misinterpretations related to Agile Software Development and Agile Testing. Here are some examples.

1. Take the waterfall model and add one arrow
2. Agile means 'start coding with no documentation'
3. Agile means 'ad hoc' or 'no processes’
4. Agile means 'no planning'
5. Agile team members must be super stars
6. Agile is for product engineering only
7. Changes can happen on a daily basis
8. Agile is for development projects only
9. Agile impacts work-life balance
10. Agile is just another fad
11. TDD is enough to ensure software testing
12. A chain of unit tests is a complete regression suite
13. Agile doesn’t allow for long-term planning
14. Agile testing is all about unit testing, TDD, and test automation
15. In Agile projects process compliance is a big issue

Details on each of these are available in this freely downloadable PDF. Happy Reading!

18 comments:

Bhardwaj Velamakanni said...

16. You are Agile the moment you stop following Waterfall. (Agile is the opposite of Waterfall)

17. Agile is a silver bullet that magically solves all your problems.

18. I am Agile because I call my requirements user stories and meetings as stand-ups :)

19. Agile is not for onsite-offshore set-up

20. Agile means indiscipline

Raja Bavani said...

Bhardwaj,

Good additions! Thanks for posting these!

Sunil Mundra said...

I would add the following ones:

1. Agile lacks discipline, i.e. people can do what ever they want
2. Agile is not scalable
3. Pair Programming results in duplication of effort
4. Agile is unsuitable for Fix Bid projects
5. Agile does not work in a Distributed Development environment
6. Agile causes lack of Accountability

Raja Bavani said...

Thanks Sunil, for adding 6 more. These are very pragmatic. Will benefit readers!

Valentin Tudor Mocanu said...

See first Author: Ian Spence
1. Agile works in any context
2. TDD result in overall greater effort
3. Agile means Scrum And Scrum means Agile (disregarding engineering side)
4. Agile need only willing without capabilities.
5. Agile is suitable to Fix Bid long term projects without being scaled
6. There are only Agile and ugly Waterfall (UP not mentioned)
7. We can choose to not use Agile by default , and to make no steps to agility

Raja Bavani said...

Dear Valentin Tudor Mocanu,

There are good additions! Well done! Thanks!

Hasith Yaggahavita said...

Interesting and good compilation... One comment on
"5. Agile team members must be super stars"

I understand what you mean with this... but to some extent this is not a myth at all... in traditional approaches, it was more easy to have 'passengers' covered behind few 'mavericks' in the team, because operation visibility to the customer was quite less.

But with agile (Scrum for instance), provides grater external visibility to each and every individual in the team. For the practical purposes in offshore supplier point of view, now they need to have 'better' stars in teams comparatively to traditional methods.

Raja Bavani said...

Dear Hasith,

I understand your point of view. Of course, we cannot have 'passengers' covered behind 'mavericks'! Self-led team is what we need. Self-led teams need not be composed of all super stars!

Ralph Mack said...

Dear Hasith,

One important thing to remember is that peoples' capabilities aren't static. If the environment supports it, passengers can learn to drive; if encouraged at all, they will want to; and if they're repeatedly handed keys, they will need to. :)

jimbo said...

99 - Agile transformation has a defintion of done.

Raja Bavani said...

Jim,

'Agile transformation has a definition of done.' is an interesting and thought provoking one. When an organization is growing with several moving parts, it is a big challenge to meet the definition of done of Agile transformation. In small organizations (about 50 or 100 employees), with no turnover, etc, it is possible - but this is an ideal, or rare-to-find case. Thanks for sharing!

Raja Bavani said...

Jim,

'Agile transformation has a definition of done.' is an interesting and thought provoking one. When an organization is growing with several moving parts, it is a big challenge to meet the definition of done of Agile transformation. In small organizations (about 50 or 100 employees), with no turnover, etc, it is possible - but this is an ideal, or rare-to-find case. Thanks for sharing!

jimbo said...

@Raja - point being that this too is a myth. #99 was tongue-in-cheek as it might come as the final word on Agile transformation.
If a group or company says "We are done with our Agile transformation.", then they are NOT done with their Agile transformation.

Raja Bavani said...

Jim, Well said! It is not a destination but a journey! Thanks!

Zora Ferrel said...

A very good article on some of Agile myths and facts. It is very helpful. Thanks for sharing.

Clarissa Lucas said...

Thank you for posting this great read on Agile myths and facts. It is very informative. Cheers!

Shilpi Kumari said...

Thanks for making this great post, it was very informative...so many experts also shared their myths and misconceptions.... i am currently doing training for Agile & Scrum cetification. It cleared some of my doubts.

Raja Bavani said...

Thanks Shilpi! Appreciate it! Best wishes on your certification.