Agile — Scrum — XP

Every successful business has a form of structure that it leverages to achieve its vision over its competitors. If a business is going to have the right team, the right investment and financial strategies, it should also have the right plan of attack for software. We are not building cars or houses, we are writing code. Technology is a higher thinking position, not a lower thinking position. This fact is not meant to say one is better or worse than another, but they are different, especially predictability. For this reason, it is imperative that we not try to use the same system that works for cars to build our products and services. From my experience, it doesn’t work. My Agile presentation this week covered these details from about 20K feet, with my thoughts and feelings advocating for Agile Development with the Scrum Framework. While I did discuss Extreme Programming, I did not advocate for it. I am not a fan of the fiscally and mentally draining costs associated to Full-Time pairing, but, the other constructs such as TDD, Testing Coverage, Coding Style, and Git Flows were covered. I believe sprints with a small meeting structure provide a balance to both customers and employees. This is why successful startups and Fortune 500 software companies use it. It’s the same reason why the best manufactures use LEAN or Kanban. They are not the same. IMHO, sprints also prevent the hamster wheel culture legacy company structures used to drive people into the ground. It gives business the ability to plan effectively against real metrics like velocity and burn down. Through the use of retros and reviews wins are regularly celebrated, and the process continually evolves. Is Scrum a perfect science? No! It’s a form of process that works in software. I would not use it for manufacturing. Now trust me when I say, there are many schools of thought on this, and if you are implementing your own structure do your homework. Iterate. It is more important to ship then chat about shipping.
