Clean Agile: Back to Basics

The older a software system is, the better it should be.

Analysis and design are not binary deliverables.

Working overtime is not a way to show your dedication to your employer. What it shows is that you are a bad planner, that you agree to deadlines to which you shouldn’t agree, that you make promises you shouldn’t make, that you are a manipulable laborer and not a professional.

I wrote this book because I thought it was time for someone to stand up and yell about what Agile was and what Agile still ought to be. I thought it was time to remember the basics.

There is no such thing as Agile in the large. Agile was a necessary innovation for organizing small software teams. But once organized, those teams fit into the structure that large organizations have used for millennia.

That’s my prediction. We will eventually see larger companies create new divisions that use Agile for their software development. We will also see Agile consulting companies used more and more by larger organizations that have been unable to transform their existing development staff.

Agile values are diametrically opposed to the values of large organizations who have invested heavily in middle-management structures that value safety, consistency, command-and-control, and plan execution.

Can large organizations be created that allow Agile teams to prosper within them? Certainly! However, note that the word is created not transformed.

“Agile is a small idea about the small problem of small programming teams doing small things.”