I just returned from covering the Serena Tag 2008 conference. I want to share this one session exploring the myths around Agile development. The rest of the conference coverage can be found on my blog, Portals and KM. Many organizations are moving away from traditional waterfall application development to the flexible fast track that Agile offers and a lot of questions are floating around on the topic.

The Wikipedia defines Agile software development as follows

“Agile software development refers to a group of software development methodologies that promotes development iterations, open collaboration, and process adaptability throughout the life-cycle of the project. It chooses to do things in small increments, with minimal planning, rather than plan at length. This helps to minimize the overall risk, and allows the project to adapt to changes more quickly. There is also an emphasis on stakeholder involvement. Meaning at the end of each iteration, the stakeholder is consulted about the product and comments are noted.”

Jeff McKenna of Serena led a panel discussion with members from Valtech and Serena.

Myth one: Agile means you never have to write documentation. Both sides were briefly covered by the panel. The audience was asked and 79% said it is false. This is also the position of Serena and Valtech. However, it is documentation at can be done at the right time when the system is ready. There is less editing and revisions.

Myth Two: Agile is more disciplined than other methods. Again, both sides were briefly covered. The audience was asked. 43% said false and 41% said true. The panel believes that Agile is more disciplined but it is bottom up discipline rather than imposed discipline. There is more feedback and engagement. This is a common, and counter intuitive, aspect of enterprise 2.0. With transparency you get accountability and more discipline. It results in greater productivity. I have seen many examples of the switch to more transparent project management leading to significant increases in productivity.

Myth Three: Agile means I can change my mind whenever I want to. Both sides were briefly argued. The audience was asked and 79% said it is false. This is also the position of Serena and Valtech. There needs to be some stability. Within the sprints in Agile development, change needs to be on hold. Then there can be times for change.

Myth Four: Agile works on all sizes of projects. Both sides were debated. The audience was asked and 59% said true. This is also the position Serena and Valtech but you need to recognize that there are greater needs for large projects for them to succeed. The key differential is that you can keep Agile teams small and link together these teams to handle size. One large project had 27 teams successfully linked together.

Myth Five: Agile means teams cannot be controlled by management. Both sides were debated. The audience was asked and 72% said false. Serena and Valtech agree with this. Agile is about control through planning, monitoring, and adapting. Management is about getting more done by removing obstacles. There is a different style of management.

Myth Six: Agile requires detailed architecture and design. Both sides were briefly debated. The audience was asked and 55% said true. However, Serena and Valtech disagree with this. There is less architecture and design. You need architecture but it is not the driver. Architecture needs to come out from working through the problems and should not be a guiding factor. Let architecture emerge and be open to change.

Myth Seven: Agile is just the latest hype. Both sides were debated. The audience was asked and 62% said false. Serena and Valtech agree with this. It has been around for a while. There are demonstrated successes. Most employees like it and there are productivity improvements.

Myth Eight: Agile works on complex projects. After the opening debate, the audience was asked and 71% said true. Serena and Valtech agree with this. However, complex projects do require more management, even with Agile.

Myth Nine: Agile teams do not work hard, they just play foosball. The debate got more humorous here The audience was asked and 75% said false. Serena and Valtech agree with this. There is balance of work and fun required. Focus is key. However, they did say that Agile developers are more likely to have fun outside work and sleep better at night as there less worries about errors.

Myth Ten: Agile is only used for mission critical projects. After the opening debate, the audience was asked and 95% said false and Serena and Valtech agree with this. It works for all types of projects.