A Retrospective on Constructing a Personal Narrative on Agile Development

摘要

The underlying principles of Agile Development had been stated and established for 30 years before the Agile Manifesto was proposed. Software Prototyping, Rapid Application Development, Rapid Development, Iterative Development, even Help Desks and SWAT teams must be seen as antecedents of Agile Development, as we understand it today. The original proponents of 'agile development' attempted to develop a new narrative for software system development. However, notwithstanding the length of this history, now some 45 years in the making, many developers, and education institutions, still question the approach, still refuse to include it in course curriculum, at least partly due to it being ignored in IEEE curriculum structures, still demand 'proof that it works', and still adhere to the traditional linear phased thinking of the Waterfall Approaches. Responding to the need for 'proof' and attempting to debate the adherents of the long-standing Waterfall Approaches has proven futile, but a new narrative has been evolved which attempts to describe Agile Development as being a normal, usual approach to human activity, reflecting the way people inevitably act when intending to undertake, and in the process of undertaking, any purposeful activity with a planned outcome. Uncertainty is the norm, planning is essential but empirical and adaptive, leadership is preferred over management. Other research disciplines have much to contribute to agile thinking and action.