In theory, practice is simple. But, is it simple to practice theory?

Theory vs. practicing the theory

Part 1: recap of the manifesto


This post on my first blog in the "agile space" talks about the theory of agile - the methodologies, frameworks etc. and discusses why it is difficult to practice what is suggested in theory. But first things first, let me tell you why am I obsessed with Agile!

 I love Agile, primarily because of the fact that it stresses on keeping things simple & focuses primarily on "people" and the "people factors" influencing software development. 

 If you look closely at the agile manifesto, below are some of the things you'll observe -

  • Two out of four manifesto items are people-related -
    • Individuals and interactions (over processes and tools)
    • Customer collaboration (over contract negotiation)
  • None of the items in the manifesto talk anything about processes to follow or "best practices", so to say!
  • The manifesto doesn't stress on what tools or methodologies to use for developing software
  • Last but not the least, while we strive to embrace change, the manifesto suggests that the only way to measure progress is by delivering working software; and not by the weight of the documentation created en route to the finished product.
'nuff said, over and over again; and by now you should have the manifesto in your blood cells. 
Stay tuned for part 2 of this post!


Best,
Jasdev Singh (PMI-ACP, CSM)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When you equate story points with time...

Image
Agile becomes fragile! When you are "doing" agile (most likely because it's in vogue) but have not come out of the "sequential " SDLC execution syndrome or the traditional waterfall way of thinking and executing a project, you are most likely headed for a disaster! Of many things that may or will go wrong, is the estimation of work . The traditional methods of estimation like function-point analysis helped us answer the question - "how long (or duration) will a piece of work take to complete?". On the contrary, Agile keeps it simple and takes a minimalistic approach to estimation. In my opinion, estimation in agile is no rocket science as long as you are clear with the basics and understand "what story points are" and how to use them. Visit my blog post on story points for an understanding. Story Points vs. Time (Person Days) Mike Cohn shares a mantra that makes estimation easy - " Estimate size, measure velocity, derive
Read more

What's the point in a story point?

Image
Part 1: talking of the point Story points are estimates of effort as influenced by the amount of work, complexity, risk and uncertainty ( https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/what-are-story-points ). When we estimate with story points, we assign a point value to each item. The raw values we assign are unimportant. What matters is the  relative values . A story that is assigned a 2 should be twice as much as a story that is assigned a 1. It should also be two-thirds of a story that is estimated as 3 story points. Not delving into the details of how to estimate and what these numbers should be (linear vs. non-linear series or Fibonacci numbers), the focus of this post is to discuss how these points affect the life of a scrum team (development team, scrum master & product owner). A story adds “value” by delivering functionality that the business has asked for, and can/will use depending on whether the story is a part of potentially shi
Read more