Agility
One of the great technology developments of the 1990s wasn't a hardware or software advance at all, but rather a change in the way programmers were doing their jobs. The move from "waterfall" methods to more iterative methods sparked a major shift in how software was produced. These changes affected not only speed, but also quality across another of different criteria including perfomance, reliability, appropriateness, and satisfaction. The older methods are still used today, ranging from fairly unorganized project management tovery maticulously configured waterfal or semi-iterative methods.
Along with the notion of iterative development came a lot of other new ways of developing software which better fit the emerging methodology. Scrum, XP (Extreme Programming), Crystal, and a number of other methods provided practices well suited to the short cycle, contiunous delivery processes required for truely iterative development. Lumped under the umbrella of "Agile" methods, this new way of developing software had one key difference from the traditional thinking behind software development.
Uniformly, agile software development embraces the notion that people come first, not technology. People come before process, process comes before technology. This principle is key to understanding why agile methods are different and how they work well when applied properly. The right motivation must be in place, otherwise the underlying methodology won't work effectively.
In exploring Fabulous IT, the human factor takes center stage. Newer approaches like the Enterprise Unified Process take agile beyond just software development to encompass all of IT. Technology itself isn't fabulous. People are fabulous: solutions, design, packaging, and communication are all human aspects associated with technology that can be fabulous. Fabulous and agile go hand in hand, but I hope to demonstate that agile is a subset of fabulous.
Along with the notion of iterative development came a lot of other new ways of developing software which better fit the emerging methodology. Scrum, XP (Extreme Programming), Crystal, and a number of other methods provided practices well suited to the short cycle, contiunous delivery processes required for truely iterative development. Lumped under the umbrella of "Agile" methods, this new way of developing software had one key difference from the traditional thinking behind software development.
Uniformly, agile software development embraces the notion that people come first, not technology. People come before process, process comes before technology. This principle is key to understanding why agile methods are different and how they work well when applied properly. The right motivation must be in place, otherwise the underlying methodology won't work effectively.
In exploring Fabulous IT, the human factor takes center stage. Newer approaches like the Enterprise Unified Process take agile beyond just software development to encompass all of IT. Technology itself isn't fabulous. People are fabulous: solutions, design, packaging, and communication are all human aspects associated with technology that can be fabulous. Fabulous and agile go hand in hand, but I hope to demonstate that agile is a subset of fabulous.