Agile Terrorists Cookbook - Subverting the process and enjoying it
aka The Agilistas Handbook.
Collated by BenHogan from comments by ChristianSepulveda?, RobertVolker?, SolomonBlaz?, ZhonJohansen?, NateJones?, RachelDavies?, SteveFreeman?, AndyPols?, BillGreen? and others.
Introduction
Sometimes we have to work undercover to introduce Agile principles. This is a collection of techniques and comments about doing this under the radar.Generating Documentation
Have you been forced to produce a specification document? Document the system? There are a number of automated tools including Dot and AgileDox? (sourceforge) that can generate documentation from your tests.Another document technique is to reverse engineer your code and tests, write a sentence or two about some of the UML and voila! - incredibly detailed design documentation.
Phased Delivery
Suggesting a phased delivery can allow prioritisation to be introduced, and perhaps all those phase II priorities mandated in the contract weren't needed after all. Helps if you find some new high-priority requirements and deliver them.You are the weakest link
Get the team / company to rank each other regularly. If someone is constantly near the bottom, arrange for them to start getting many calls from head hunters. Leak their CV?Blocker Pattern
Not pulling their weight? How about some documentation?Emergency Release / Patch
Do you have a heavy change control process? Too many forms to fill out? Releases hard to do? Try declaring each release an emergency release or patch release. Even more satisfying when using documented escalation proceedures.It's a Bug not a Feature
If it is too late to introduce a new feature, try declaring it a bug. Just add a button to the interface then declare it broken.Remain Invisible
Eliminate any words that are scary from your vocab: Extreme, Agile, Test First etc. Don't tell anyone you are doing XP or Agile.Can you help me?
Instead of saying let's Pair Program say Can you help me?Completion Criteria
Instead of saying Acceptance Test ask What are the completion criteria?Jaywalking
As a metaphor for all agile-terrorism try Jaywalking.. against the law, gets you there quicker, best not to get caught, fun.Ethics
Is is ethical to introduce Agile in a subversive way?What to do when you are caught
Any ideas?Gather allies
When first IntroducingAgile?, start with your friends. Teach them the practices. Then have them try it out. Once you have enough support on mutiple teams spring it on the rest of the company. Having allies in the management, development and marketing camps really helps.[.FrontPage] [.RecentChanges]