Reading this question/answer on Stackoverflow I tangentially wondered whether working to Agile practices played any greater a role in my technical skills development compared to ‘back in the day‘ when I wasn’t using Agile methods.

There ought to be no difference in technical skills development whether the context is Agile or any other process – indeed for most it’s likely to be nothing to do with process at all.

Whilst that may be true, I would suggest that some Agile processes have definitely played a unique role in my own skills development, specifically:

• Pair programming
  • Working together you learn countless ‘new tricks’ from colleagues, whether those are new APIs or ways of doing things
  • Working together you pare down more and keep things more DRY. Less really means more
• TFD
  • Improves ones ability to break down larger more complex problems
• Story Card Iterations
  • Keeps your work focused and reduces YAGNIs creeping in

So while specific technical skills or interests obviously relate to what you are creating, Agile can definately play a role in breeding a good development habit – the caveat being that employing Agile needs competent leadership for the above to flourish at it’s best.