Chapter 31. Slow Chaos Is Not Order
Going Fast? Bring Discipline!
Agile or just fast? The next turn will tell.
We all have our pet peeves or hot buttons, things that we’ve come across often enough that, despite their insignificance, really annoy us. In private life, these issues tend to revolve around things like toothpaste tubes: cap off versus cap on, or squeezed from the bottom versus from the middle. Such differences have been known to put numerous marriages and live-in relationships in danger (hint: a second tube runs about $1.99).
In the corporate IT world, pet peeves tend to be related to things more technical in nature. Mine is people using the word agile without having understood its meaning, almost two decades after the Agile Manifesto was authored. Surely you have overheard conversations like the following:
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What’s your next major deliverable? Dunno—we are Agile!
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What’s your project plan? Because we are Agile, we are so fast that we couldn’t keep the plan up to date!
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Could I see your documentation? Don’t need it—we are Agile!
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Could you tell me about your architecture? Nope—Agile projects don’t need this!
And when one dares to ask how the teams know that they are Agile, you’re sure to hear the following response:
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We are guaranteed to be Agile because we’re officially certified!
Such ignorance is topped only by statements that Agile methods aren’t suited ...
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