Comments on: Finally, a tight design argument against Agile http://www.kipbot.com/blog/2008/03/29/finally-a-tight-design-argument-against-agile/ apophenic pretentia Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:20:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.11 by: Todd W. http://www.kipbot.com/blog/2008/03/29/finally-a-tight-design-argument-against-agile/#comment-334 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:47:59 +0000 http://www.kipbot.com/blog/2008/03/29/finally-a-tight-design-argument-against-agile/#comment-334 I'm a huge fan of prototyping, at whatever level of fidelity, and I lament that I don't see enough of it or enough of it done seriously. Though as you point out its important to match the audience and goals to the "truthfulness" or completeness of the prototype. But the danger that's ever present and swallows up teams in no time is the temptation to lock on to the prototype as a solution and begin expending energy solving second-order problems, ie problems created by the prototype's failures to solve the original problem. They begin to spiral away from solving the original problem with Frankensteinian additions or subtractions to the prototype so that any sort of holistic consistency is completely lost. I’m a huge fan of prototyping, at whatever level of fidelity, and I lament that I don’t see enough of it or enough of it done seriously. Though as you point out its important to match the audience and goals to the “truthfulness” or completeness of the prototype.

But the danger that’s ever present and swallows up teams in no time is the temptation to lock on to the prototype as a solution and begin expending energy solving second-order problems, ie problems created by the prototype’s failures to solve the original problem. They begin to spiral away from solving the original problem with Frankensteinian additions or subtractions to the prototype so that any sort of holistic consistency is completely lost.

]]> by: kipbot http://www.kipbot.com/blog/2008/03/29/finally-a-tight-design-argument-against-agile/#comment-307 Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:00:32 +0000 http://www.kipbot.com/blog/2008/03/29/finally-a-tight-design-argument-against-agile/#comment-307 To be clear, I'm not opposed to agile per se, just the idea that it's the only/best way to do things. To be clear, I’m not opposed to agile per se, just the idea that it’s the only/best way to do things.

]]> by: Damon Poole http://www.kipbot.com/blog/2008/03/29/finally-a-tight-design-argument-against-agile/#comment-305 Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:43:49 +0000 http://www.kipbot.com/blog/2008/03/29/finally-a-tight-design-argument-against-agile/#comment-305 Hi, I know what you mean about the zealotry. That was my initial experience as well. It took me a while to realize that many of the ideas themselves are sound, even if some of the proponents are foaming at the mouth. You may be interested in the following post on design: http://damonpoole.blogspot.com/2007/12/desiging-software-is-same-as-predicting.html I agree that "doing it right" is important, but it isn't always clear what is needed. So, you can spend lots of time "doing it right" only to have somebody say "that works great, but it isn't what I wanted at all." Hi,

I know what you mean about the zealotry. That was my initial experience as well. It took me a while to realize that many of the ideas themselves are sound, even if some of the proponents are foaming at the mouth.

You may be interested in the following post on design:
http://damonpoole.blogspot.com/2007/12/desiging-software-is-same-as-predicting.html

I agree that “doing it right” is important, but it isn’t always clear what is needed. So, you can spend lots of time “doing it right” only to have somebody say “that works great, but it isn’t what I wanted at all.”

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