Manifesto for Half-Arsed Agile Software Development

Rather than send the usual email or IM, I stopped by to see one of our developers this morning and discuss his testing needs for a set of code changes in the database. He wasn't there, but a copy of the

Manifesto for Half-Arsed Agile Software Development

was hanging just outside the entrance to his cubicle.

The perfect concise description of the phenomenon I have been trying to describe: the Agile environment that becomes decidedly less agile than the waterfall approach simply because it's a hybrid of the two. And it's the attempt to use Agile software development while not being ready to let go of the old security blankets that is resulting in the horror stories we all read about.

I've learned two valuable lessons already this morning:

1. I am not alone in my frustration in dealing with hybrid software development methods.

2. Meeting with your coworkers face to face is a valuable thing ... even when you don't manage to see them.