http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=674631


in reply to An interesting rebuttal of "agile"

I didn't read the full article, but certain points strike me off the bat. One is that more process control is not always better; it's important to find the right balance. More specifically, it's important for all stakeholders (management, developers, QA, support, and the clients, be they internal or external) to understand and be comfortable with the process (and if possible, participate in its design) in order to avoid needless bureaucracy.

Where I work we have production releases every two weeks. Our process is pretty lean, but we follow it rigorously. Others might complain that it's not rigorous enough, but truthfully I think a lot teams I've encountered or read about have erected rigid processes to make up for the fact that they can't work in this "agile", rapid-development environment. Why not? Hard to say; lack of motivation, lack of imagination especially on the part of the team leaders, who knows.

Not, mind you, that I'm claiming rapid development is inherently better for all applications. If I were developing embedded systems, real-time systems, safety-critical stuff or anything under a strict regulatory regime, things might be different.