{"id":7022,"date":"2018-09-10T15:29:42","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T09:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/?p=7022"},"modified":"2018-09-11T09:17:28","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T03:47:28","slug":"interview-with-andrew-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/10\/interview-with-andrew-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Andrew Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

This time we bring you conversation with a Programmer turned consultant, author and publisher – Andrew Hunt.<\/p>\n

Andy is a founder of the Pragmatic Programmers and Agile Alliance. He is one of the original co-authors the Agile Manifesto, and authored several books not just on programming, Agile methods and learning, but also on science fiction and adventure. An active musician and woodworker, \u00a0Andy looks for new areas to explore, learn and share.<\/p>\n

In this interview, we discussed about what will Agile be beyond 2018.<\/p>\n

Q1. \u00a0It is almost 17 years ever since Agile<\/i> has came into existence. Do you believe it has achieved what it aimed for, by the 17 precious minds? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Andy: <\/span>I think the movement was very successful in some regards, and certainly raised the overall discussion and level of awareness of how we should and should not try to develop software. Some particular practices have seen widespread and successful adoptions, and that\u2019s all great.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, many organizations are still underperforming and are not able to generate value from their software development projects. They aren\u2019t being effective, and don\u2019t understand what the problem is. They still don\u2019t understand what it means to be Agile.<\/span><\/p>\n

Worse, perhaps, the major \u201cAgile\u201d methods themselves have not appreciably changed in all these years. The Agile methods themselves don\u2019t seem to be very Agile, ironically.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q2. Have you ever been disappointed by the way Agile is being implemented in any organization\/team and went off track? Please share your experience. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Andy: <\/span>Constantly. I\u2019ve met teams who\u2019ve claimed \u201cwe\u2019re agile, we use Jira\/Rally\/VersionOne!\u201d Teams where the continuous build runs on Friday. Where version control check-ins only happen once every two weeks. Where the version control system in use is Microsoft Outlook(!). Where the Stand Up meeting runs forty-five minutes. Where rough estimates with insufficient data are taken as contractual, binding promises.<\/span><\/p>\n

I worked with a team once who was so intent on perfecting their process (XP in this case), that they practically used User Stories on cards to decide on where to go for lunch. In their zeal for Agile adoption, the process itself became the focus of their work, instead of merely a means to an end to deliver product.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently I had some developers tell me, with a straight face, that they weren\u2019t allowed to do incremental or iterative development. They could only deliver once, as \u201cgold master\u201d at the end of a multiyear development project. No review, no feedback before then, not even internally. I tried emailing them last week to see how it went, but all the emails bounced. <\/span><\/p>\n

Apparently they are no longer in business.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q3. Certification or Experience – it is much discussed among Agile practitioners; what can take anyone\u2019s career to next level, according to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andy: <\/span>Certification is nonsense. It is a very poor proxy by which to judge past experience or future performance. There is absolutely no substitute for experience, certainly not simple course attendance, or performance on a low-fidelity, written test instrument. There is plenty of research in learning transfer that confirms that common certification assessment approaches simply don\u2019t work.<\/span><\/p>\n

The whole game of software development is about communications and learning. How well do you communicate to other developers? To the users? To the project sponsors and executives? How fast can you learn? Not just tech, but the evolving system, the dynamics of the team, of the user\u2019s experience, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

To get your career to the next level, those are the areas you need to work on. Improve your ability to learn quickly, thoroughly. Improve your critical thinking skills. Learn to be a better listener.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those are the sorts of things we need assessments on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q4. Do you find any myths floating in the community about Agile methodology? Please share 3 such myths that are critical to be eliminated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andy: <\/span><\/p>\n