Agile 2008 – Wednesday

Wednesday kicked off for me with a talk by Ron Jeffries and Chet Hendrickson on “Natural Laws of Software Development” where they began with some basic ideas about delivering features and value early, and from that, derived most of the XP practices.  On the way they described some continuum, which struck me as good ways of thinking about approaches to software development:

Paper      <-----> Conversation
Distance   <-----> Close
Infrequent <-----> Continuous
Abstract   <-----> Examples

Two things struck me as conspicuous by their absence – timeboxing and estimation.  Asking Ron about this afterwards, he suggested that they weren’t critical, although he didnt know how to develop without them.  I was reassured to hear this, given my focus on kanban systems for software development.

No other highlights, unfortunately.  In the afternoon, I went to “Come and Take It! Lean Pull Applied”, but found it disappointing, although the exercise had potential.

We also presented our “Managers’ Guide To TDD” which went well and was videoed for InfoQ.  I hope the edit turns out OK and will post details when its available.

Thanks to VersionOne for finding me a ticket onto their cruise in the evening.  A great trip round the lake with beer, food, conversation and gambling (with fake money).

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