I recently read through 37 Signals’ excellent manual, Getting Real.  It describes in detail a successful method for developing and launching web-based software.  Many of its tenets are based on the principles of Agile Development, first articulated by Kent Beck et al in The Agile Manifesto.  There is so much hope and good will in these documents – it makes me a little sad.  Agile started out as a way to free software developers from the chains of a brittle, dogmatic technology age, where change was viewed as expensive and collaboration dangerous.  Agile is supposed to tilt development toward the ways in which developers naturally work.  Despite its promise, agile has become one of those professional chew-toys that has been so thoroughly mangled and salivated over, it’s barely recognizable anymore.  Many of its principles have been diluted by blind adoption.  At the same time, Agile Development has a dark side.  It’s the perfect crutch for refusing to do the diligence that’s required on many tech projects, and, sadly, for denying developers the avenues it was meant to open.

Agile Development is in danger of slipping into the ditch already occupied by brainstorming sessions, train-the-trainer, and team-building: that of management double-speak and great ideas used as excuses to continue the same old practices. (more…)