“Agile” Is Like A Box Of Chocolates: You Never Know What You’re Gonna Get
Johnathan Kohl last Tuesday wrote on his blog about the word “Agile”. He compiled a ton of different but related ideas: all about the word “Agile” and what it might mean. What I think he’s saying — and, in fact, showing — is that “Agile” (capital “A” or not) is like a box of chocolates: (at this point) you never know what you’re gonna get.
My friend, Christian Baudin and I are working on a project together, and I would admit that “it’s cool” to call our project agile (we, at this point, have no idea whether we’re calling it capital “A” Agile, just agile, or anything at all). Looking at our de-facto process — the possibly-unamed thing we simply fell into to — may just be called chaos. However, I would admit that, from a student’s perspective, being able to have “agile” as an experience — and possibly as a resume builder — is pretty alluring.
On the other end, Christian and I continually argue, hammering out whatever kinks stand in our way. We see these arguments as good things and we value them. However, I’m finding that, when relating our concerns to the Agile Manifesto, mine are more to the left where his are more to the right (read this as different; not degrading). I think, if I were to make some intuitive guess, we’re both arguing for a middle ground — to allay both concerns — and to come out with a project that satisfies all involved. If that happens — if our chaos actually works — then is there a need to coin it some way?
I’m sure that, because the programming team, the testing team, the marketing team, the sysadmin team, and the (you name it) team, are just Christian and I, our concerns can be ironed out in a short amount of time. This is how we manage it. I’d guess that a larger project with more people may need a totally different type of choas, because the project in itself is different. This is what I’d call context-driven (which I think might become the next “Agile”).
Although I’d hate to admit that a term with so much spotlight — that is so dear to people’s professional hearts — may be a marketing term, I don’t see any other reason to make a name for it. Yes, we need a word we can all use in our professional lingo — in order to communicate — but as Jonathan’s post makes clear (at least, makes clear to me; I’m inferring), any word that could have money behind it will. It’s like looking through a phone book and seeing “Reliable, Dependable, and Trustworthy.” Or, maybe, pulling a card from a hat. Or eating a chocolate.
An ending question: Could “Agile” be a description given to a process (or group) by a third-party, or a very large mass of people? For instance, take the word humble: I can never trust a humble man who states to others, “Yes, I am a humble man,” just as I can’t trust a company who states to customers, “Yes, we’re agile.”
Well done. Nice simile - “Agile is like a box of chocolates”. I like it.
You said:
“take the word humble: I can never trust a humble man who states to others, “Yes, I am a humble man,†just as I can’t trust a company who states to customers, “Yes, we’re agile.â€
Bravo. I have said something similar, but with people who tell me they are funny. I have a friend who is an amateur standup comedian, and the ones who tell me they are funny never are.
-Jonathan
Interesting read… I’m curious, what is they project that you’re working on?
[Tim's response: Well, we were trying to create an Eclipse based manual testing tool along the lines of TestExplorer by SiriusSQA. We hoped ours would do some of the same things as TestExplorer, but definitely not all -- we only wanted the basics. Unfortunately, we ran into some technical limitations that kept us from finishing: We couldn't find libraries to do exactly what we wanted, and we didn't have the graphics know-how to write the libraries ourselves. It still might be a project for later, but for now, we've tabled it. When I wrote the last post, we were still in the "proof-of-concept" portion of the project.
]
Interesting, sounds like a reasonable idea. I wish the TestExplorer site was somewhat better at explaining what it is in less than a minute of looking around
What are you doing for senior design?
Ahmed — Well, funny you should say that! We are currently revamping the website based on exactly such feedback.
On the other hand, you could always just ask us, or download the demo and play with it.
I am flattered that you are trying to emulate our tool. I am aware of Eclipse, but not really knowledgable about it…how would an eclipse version be different than a Windows version?? Maybe we could collaberate…
If anyone has any questions about TestExplorer, I will be glad to discuss it…you can reach me at dgilbert at sirius-sqa dot com.
Sincerely,
David Gilbert
President
Sirius SQA
Hmm… Never thought the president of the company would read my post.
I guess this really is a small world. If I was actually a tester and interested in your tool, I’m sure I would’ve downloaded the demo and played with it. I’m glad you provide that opportunity to your prospective customers.
As for the reason for doing an Eclipse plugin vs a full “Windows” application, would be cross-platform, having a solid code base to work from (in terms of GUI code and other helper code.) and considering Florida Tech mainly uses Java as a language in classes, it’s familiar.
Whereas, for a company, basing a product off open source (or free) software may not be viable from a business standpoint, it’s completely doable for a part-time student project.