Agile Failures
I was pointed towards this talk given by Joe Rainsberger at the Agile 2007 conference a few weeks ago. The handout sums it up pretty well. Rainsberger is an experienced Agile coach and admitted Agile zealot. Given his good list of mistake examples, one is left wondering if he has ever been on a successful Agile project. And further, Rainsberger is a leader in the Agile movement and even he had trouble. What about the average Agile practitioner? Surely they must be having some problems too.
In his concluding paragraph, Rainsberger says:
In 2007 I realized that I had spent most of the XP-era of my career inadvertently, but consistently, forgetting about the people involved. I demonstrated this attitude by pushing ideas on them, believing the promise of XP over observing how people react to trying XP, emphasizing learning the practices over introducing what the team needs most, and perhaps most notably by assuming that everyone would be happier if they delivered software more effectively.
In short, he was apparently ignoring the context in which he was working. He was ignoring the impact that XP techniques were having on the project and the people he was forcing them on. Not surprisingly this led to some project failures. And now he is talking and writing about it. There may be some hope after all.
on September 8th, 2007 at 12:23 am
I wouldn’t say all these mistakes he’s suffered are a sign of problems with the Agile methodology. I’d say it merely shows that whatever method used to develop software it’ll come across that same set of weaknesses and difficulties as any of the numerous failed IT projects undertaken - the human element. However, these mistakes aren’t to be feared - they’re to be doubled to paraphrase a very wise man. In the failures you have a great opputunity to learn and I think agile development lends itself to the flexibility and unpredictability of human nature very well and so it’s most uniquely placed to adapt and strengthen rather than be cursed to repeat.
on September 11th, 2007 at 6:03 am
I think that this is courageous from Joe Rainsberger to look back at the problems met as an agile coach and to admit them publicly. I think he could have faced the same kind of problems trying to implement any other change in activity or tool in an organization (and this is nothing personnal against him), but this is true that the fact he was trying to implement an agile approach adds a little bit of irony to the story.
on September 11th, 2007 at 6:13 am
All true. But this example does show, once again, that Agile isn’t the panacea that some would have us believe it is.
on December 25th, 2007 at 9:11 am
There are those who would have you believe Agile is a panacea? Are you sure that’s what they’re doing? What did you see, read or hear that led you to believe that?
I am a believer in XP: I think it’s an excellent set of rules to help people start thinking about how they produce software while still actually producing it. I have always believed XP to be, all things equal, a great place to start learning. Does that necessarily mean I believe XP to be a panacea? What else could it possibly mean?