François Beauregard from Pyxis Technologies interviewed me during Agile 2009 for their Vox Agile podcast. The interview is now online.
We chatted about a favorite topic of mine: how to expand the horizons for Agile. My point is mostly that the Agile crowd is mostly talking about basic issues in software development, including during the Agile 2009 conference. I fear that this my give the wrong impression to beginners (“how, so we only need to do this and that, and we’re agile? Cool!”) and even to seasoned practitioners (“this Agile thing is not addressing my needs anymore”).
I would much prefer that we talk more about complex problems, whether they relate directly to Agile or not. This can include technical discussions or more touchy-feely ones. As long as we are addressing difficult problems, we will be making progress.
I also want to see more cross-domains talks. Obvious domains are the heavy industry (I won’t need to remind how influential Toyota has been to the IT industry) or performing arts. But that could also include things such as Behavioral Economics.
Or not. I don’t know for sure. However, I do know that we should be taking more risks. And stop presenting Introductions to Retrospectives for the upteenth time.
At the end of the talk, I mention 2 things for further reading. Here they are, plus a bonus book that I’ve just read:
- Implementation Patterns, by Kent Beck
- Rands In Repose, a blog on technological culture and managerial aspect of life in an IT firm; posts are not frequent, but very interesting (and long)
- bonus track: The Logic of Life, a book by Tim Harford; this is very much in the style of The Undercover Economist (his previous books, which I enjoyed a lot) and Freakonomics (ditto)
The podcast is available in French on the Vox Agile site.
Ce dont tu parles dans le podcast n’est pas nouveau, non ? D’aussi loin que je me souviene, le discours agile a toujours répété : “agile is no silver bullet”. Le consultant consciencieux ne saura-t-il pas convaincre ET mettre en garde ?
D’après toute ton expérience dans le consulting, quels étaient les moteurs de ton action ? Le petit sourire du manageur qui sourit car il ne comprend pas ou se qui se moque ? Le petit sourire du chef de projet sur les gains de productivité ? Le petit sourire du développeur qui découvre la puissance du TDD ?
Penses-tu que tu as eu une influence positive sur les gens que tu as coachés ?
Le buzz actuel autour de l’agilité a des effets pervers, c’est vrai : discours simplificateur des dérives commerciales, amalgames en tous genres, petites phrases ironiques: “ça fait dix ans que je suis ‘agile'”, “moi aussi je développe sans doc et je livre tous les jours”… On doit sans doute être blasé de ce passage au grand public quand on a fait partie des pionniers… Es-tu frustré de ne pas pratiquer l’agilité académique que tu as diffusé ? Cette confrontation au réel te ferait-elle changer ton discours si tu devais de nouveau coacher ?
L’aspiration à plus de technicité dans les conférences n’est-elle pas la manifestation des difficultés techniques rencontrées au jour le jour ?
Beaucoup de questions, mais j’aimerai apprendre encore plus du virage que tu as pris au cours des derniers mois. Merci pour le podcast. (Mettez des commentaires sur la page Pyxis Vox Agile)