Comments on: Does Agile reduce Application Over Architecture?

By: Midwest IT Survival » Managing Infrastructure Compared to Software Development Teams – Part 2

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:45:32 +0000

[...] this concept in a future article, but lack of attention in this area will lead to problems in over architect-ed solutions as well as minimalistic point solutions that don’t scale to handle minor tweaks in the supported [...]

By: Midwest IT Survival » Is the Gantt Chart Useless in Agile Projects?

Midwest IT Survival » Is the Gantt Chart Useless in Agile Projects? — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:45:15 +0000

[...] written before that I am not an “Agile” nor “agile” development nor project management expert. I’ve [...]

By: Mark W Schumann

Mark W Schumann — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:22:22 +0000

Hey John, thanks for the plug.

I’m sure Neil is familiar with the closely related discipline of “Doing The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work” (DTSTTCPW).

Fundamentally, you need a lot of flexibility in your process and in the code itself to make YAGNI and DTSTTCPW practical. When adding a feature is time-consuming and prone to error, you worry about it in advance. When it’s relatively easy, you feel better about writing today’s code today because the (potential) new feature will come along when it needs to.

That’s also where short iterations come in. If there’s a new release every 2-4 weeks, then it’s safe to delay a feature until you know it’s actually going to be used. If it’s important, you can have it in two weeks or a month instead of six months, right?

By: jfbauer

jfbauer — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 10:02:24 +0000

Neil, thanks for dropping by and sharing your link. I had not come across “YagNi” and I am in the process of digesting the link your provided. Initially “YagNi”‘s logic in the first page seems pretty sound. I’ll have to read more.

BTW, I appreciate your insights on your blog, great work! I especially enjoyed your “How to do nothing” article: http://fragile.org.uk/2010/02/how-to-do-nothing/

By: Neil

Neil — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:25:51 +0000

Have you come across “You aren’t going to need it”? In short “Always implement things when you actually need them, never when you just foresee that you need them.”

By implementing only the barest necessary feature set in the first instance, you reduce system complexity and save time in the process.

http://c2.com/xp/YouArentGonnaNeedIt.html offers a good explanation.