Re: [AM] Article in Intelligent Enterprise magazine regarding Agile Methodologi

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I would jump on the comment
"A software engineering project should resemble a good civil engineering=
=20
project"

No, no, no.  Why should it?  Why are some so insistent on shoehorning=20
software engineering into a civil engineering paradigm?  Humanity has=20
been building bridges for millenia, but software for only decades.  It's=
=20
a dumb analogy.

No one ever says that writing a novel, or that creating a recipe, or=20
writing a song, is like building a bridge.

Reminds me of an engineering prof. I once had.  He said that the=20
engineering disciplines could be summarised by their equations:
    civil:  Sum(Forces) =3D 0
    mechanical:  Force =3D mass x acceleration
    electrical:  Schroedinger's equation:=20=20
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/SchroedingerEquation.html
The implication was that Electrical Engineering towered above all other=20
disciplines...

Of course, software development is even more involved, because we're not=
=20
constrained by the laws of physics.  Way more degrees of freedom.



Another quote:
    "The goal of software engineering in the future should be to be as=20
successful and as repeatable as any other engineering science"
I'm not so sure that repeatability is of any use.  I know thats the holy=
=20
grail for many in QA and CMM advocates, but really, what does=20
repeatability buy us?  If MS lost the source code to Word, would we=20
expect them to recreate it exactly?  Bugs and all?  Maybe I'm=20
misinterpreting the term.

If you're talking to someone who's looking for an analogy to=20
engineering, I woud point them to Poppendiecks book.  I like how they=20
compare the software development process to control engineering - but=20
don't get confused, in this case the *process* is itself a control=20
system - it's all about feedback.  In the traditional methologies, there=
=20
isn't nearly as much feedback, and perhaps thats why we've see so many=20
failures in the past decades.

In agile methods, if a practice isn't proving its worth in providing=20
feedback to the developers, its considered waste.  The Poppendiecks=20
point out that elimination of waste is paramount in the Toyota=20
Production System, a modern and very successful engineering process.







[email protected] wrote:

>=20=20
> I'd be interested in your responses to the article entitled=20
> "Popularity Contest" in Intelligent Enterprise magazine. It provides a=
=20
> capsule sketch of the comments I hear whenever the subject of agile=20
> methodologies comes up at many of the software development-related=20
> events here in Silicon Valley.
>=20=20
>
>=20=20
> http://www.intelligententerprise.com/020628/511e_business1_2.jhtml
>

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For more information about AM, visit the Agile Modeling Home Page at www.ag=
ilemodeling.com
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