“This causes them to… convince themselves that results are not the result of them… building better and better versions iteratively, but just the inevitable consequence of bringing their enormous brain to bear. This leads to things like the “Agile Methodology”, as in “I’m so Agile I don’t need a Methodology.” Instead of realizing that you have throw one away (usually more like ten), they think they can be so magically smart they don’t have to.”

It saddens me that so many consultants, vendors, etc. out there hawking “Agile” solutions as a meaningless branding message, and disillusioning smart folks who share principles with us true agilists (but who don’t share our terminology).

Real agile development is all about learning and iteration, and in my experience real agilists (as opposed to corporate sales people using ‘Agile’ as a buzzword) are a modest bunch, fully aware of their imperfection. Kent Beck, father of Test-Driven Development, has said he’s not particularly smart; he just has really good habits. True agile development embraces the fact that we screw up and can’t depend on our smarts alone to be successful. The premise of agile development is that we need rapid feedback mechanisms in every level and facet of software development, so we can learn and improve as fast as possible, because we *know* we won’t get it right the first time.