C. Keith Ray

C. Keith Ray writes about and develops software in multiple platforms and languages, including iOS® and Macintosh®.
Keith's Résumé (pdf)

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

What's the most important thing?

For Agile software development, what is the one thing that's so important that anything else is a distraction?

short answer: Working software

slightly longer answer: Being able to reliably build working software.

Thoughts?

5 comments:

  1. Isn't this really just another way of saying "Deliver value to the customer", do it reliably?

    Cheers
    Mark Levison
    Agile Pain Relief Consulting

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  2. Being able to reliably build working software that is valuable to the customers :)

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  3. Re Mark "Isn't this really just another way of saying "Deliver value to the customer", do it reliably?"

    Yup, but maybe even more basic? You gotta have something to deliver to the customer. (Or test?)

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  4. Instead, how about "valuable software" and "being able to frequently deliver valuable software"?

    To me, the essential magic in Agile methods is a full feedback loop between a need and something that satisfies it, and the shorter the feedback loop, the more magic you get.

    A project that is delivering working but valueless software isn't appealing to me. And I'd rather have frequency over reliability, because focusing on value will push you in that direction -- if reliability is valuable in your situation.

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