Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do great golf clubs make you a great golfer?
- Does a formula one race make you an expert driver?
- Do great development tools make you an expert developer?
Unless you are delusional, you know that the answer is NO to all these questions. An expert’s performance can be dramatically improved with the right tools, but a beginner will not perform better with a great tool.
No matter how Agile-enabled tools like Version One and JIRA become, using either tool will not make you Agile unless you understand what processes make agile development work.
I recently finished a contract at a large retailer where they use JIRA for an enterprise integration project. It was interesting to hear them use terms like sprint and back log; interesting because there was no regular sprint cycle, and the back log was only the tickets in the JIRA system. JIRA supports the notion of user stories (epics and stories) yet neither of these were being used correctly.
The problem isn’t JIRA; the problem was that they believed that their process was Agile because JIRA supports agile development.
Being agile is about following the Agile Manifesto.
Agile software development is not informality. Agile development has fewer formal practices than traditional waterfall development and those formal practices need to be adhered to (see Agility is not informality). Agile development is light weight because it avoids activities that are unnecessary to the production of working code, not because it avoids rigour and formality.
There are implementations of Scrum and XP that WORK and are agile because they implement sound development processes. However, there are also plenty of organizations that are implementing Scrum and XP incorrectly (see Does Agile Hide Development Sins?)
Agile does not dictate that you have a fixed development CYCLE, but you can definitely succeed with one. What is required is that you break a project into multiple cycles where you iterate on development.
Agile does not dictate HOW you keep your requirements (back log or stories) but you must have an effective requirements process. If your requirements process is broken then you will never succeed with agile.
The Agile Manifesto puts the priority on things critical to development:
- Individuals and interactions
- Working product
- Customer collaboration
- Responding to change
However, agile does not reject things in the right hand column, unless they get in the way of the above factors:
- Processes and tools
- Comprehensive documentation
- Contract negotiation
- Following a plan
In particular, don’t get get caught up in Processes and tools, i.e. Version One and JIRA. These tools can help you if you understand the core principles of agile development. If you don’t, then these tools will leave you worse off than before. Unfortunately, the popularity of agile development has every tool maker scrambling to change their product to support agile.
Tools will never extract or synthesize quality requirements and build quality code. The only way to get to proper understanding of a project is to put priority on individuals and interactions; people and communication are the only way to solve problems — tools are a secondary concern.
Individuals and interactions OVER processes and tools
Agile development does not dictate a fixed development cycle, but it does require that any cycle must finish with a working product. The emphasis always has to be production code and that is why periodic demonstrations of working code are essential.
To accomplish this you need to understand your requirements, whether you have a back log or user stories. There are many times when properly written use cases can be used. Either way the requirements need to be correct and consistent, they need to be what the customer need, i.e. avoid hiding behind excessive documentation.
Working Product OVER excessive documentation
There is no way to get the requirements correct unless you have a strong working relationship with the customer. The customer often does not get the initial requirements correct and often development does not understand them. Focus on customer collaboration is the key to mutual understanding.
This is where most projects fall apart because both parties have a tendency to focus on contract negotiation. Contracts are necessary, but focusing on limiting liability and protecting yourself will not yield a relationship that leads to working software.
Customer Collaboration OVER contract negotiation
You have to understand that following a plan does not make sense when either requirements or technical uncertainty causes you to change development direction due to the need to respond to change.
It means making reliable estimates up front of all requirements, not just caving into pressure from upper management (see Why Senior Management Declared Deadlines lead to Disaster). This often means adding time to the projected end of the project when new requirements are discovered or technical challenges force work arounds. Unfortunately, many projects do not re-adjust the projected end date under these circumstances, which leads to a death march project (see Death March Calculus).
Responding to change OVER following a plan
Agile development is about producing quality software by understanding the principles of the Agile Manifesto. Agile development is not about deluding yourself simply because you are using a tool that supports agile development. You can implement a very solid light weight agile solution using only spreadsheets.
Focus on being Agile first, then go find a tool
Other things that are compatible with agile development:
| Reference: | Agile tools do NOT make you Agile from our JCG partner Dalip Mahal at the Accelerated Development blog. |
