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Monday, October 02, 2006

Decrypting "tools" in agile manifesto

As I am preparing presentations for the upcoming Valtech days conference, I am convinced that the tools are integral part of software development and it should be used thoughtfully.

The first value in agile manifesto says:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
.

As per the value mentioned above, the agile gurus' valued "individuals and interactions " more, than the processes and tools. They are not saying don't use tools Or processes, but use cautiously. The tools and processes should not drive the project but should complement them. Another evidence is from the book Goal, the highly efficient robots in the factory didn't increase the output. Similarly, having more number of tools in an organization or a project, does not make any difference to output, but using the tools effectively will inturn increase the throughput.

Taking the above evidence to the processes (Whether it is XP,Scrum,etc),they should not drive the project. They should be used to help the individuals to deliver the product to the customers.

When programmers get excited about agile methods, they get obsessed with it and start looking at these processes as magic wand to solve all their project related problems. Which is totally untrue, and most of the time, problems are due to people problems rather than process !!

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