Agile Development: The Agile Manifesto

The Need for Agile Development in Project Management

Once upon a time, the Project Creep Monster was feared by all. Most managers at one time or another have led a project that developed Project Creep somewhere along the way. There was always to be found the project that just went on and on and on. The cause was usually a growing list of specifications that were never in the original proposal. The result was an ever-expanding development calendar that ended up trouncing the deadlines of other projects that may have had better foresight and planning, not to mention a better expected ROI. It was becoming increasingly obvious that a project’s roll-out could be delayed forever if all the specs had to be fulfilled at once. There had to be a better way.

Well, in 2001, a group of 17 developers met at the Snowbird ski resort in Utah and created the Agile Manifesto, an approach to development that relies on an iterative process which seeks to roll out projects in stages rather than trying to get in all the bells and whistles on the first and only round. I confess I was skeptical at first – until I read the Agile Manifesto. Oh, our IT director tried to explain it to us during a presentation meeting, but I don’t think we all understood or agreed with the process — myself included (my bad). The Agile Manifesto states:

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

* Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
* Working software over comprehensive documentation
* Customer collaboration over contract negotiation [note that customer collaboration includes in-house requests for projects -- so your "customer" may be one of your company's departments or head of departments - MY note- BB]
* Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

What was important about The Agile Manifesto was the degree of collaboration between developer and project manager, which allowed both to better understand the goals of each. But just as important was the ability to quickly respond to change in the business market and to zero in on identifying the most important items. By releasing the project in stages and getting the key items out first, other additions could clearly be seen as updated new features releases, thereby demonstrating a series of enhancements to add value. The “all or nothing” approach had finally slain the project creep giant. And although I was skeptical at first, I admit I was wrong. Having seen the monster “project creep” and having seen the delays and the failing of getting projects out there and keeping up with business market changes, I admit I was wrong. It’s more important to keep the “monster” from your door. So I apologize to all those IT people who I didn’t jump on board with before. I understand your pain. I understand your frustration with ever-increasing specs. And I DO understand the value of what you all do, under tremendous pressure, and ongoing revisions of specifications. You are all so valuable, and you tolerate our fantasies, near-sightedness, and misunderstandings of what it takes to launch a project. So, in a way, this is a salute to IT people everywhere, who struggle to meet our demands under intense conditions and somewhat crazy expectations. I know we are all sometimes referred to as “users” – those nutsy people who have no clue what to do with computers and software and hardware. But that is why we need YOU guys. S-M-O-O-T-C-H! I have a strong suspicion that Agile Development will be a boon to you all.

And I want to issue a thank you to all you men and women who keep us connected and keep us working. We really do appreciate you!

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Agile Development, Project Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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