Alistair Cockburn (@TheOtherAlistai) has posted a humorous yet incisive article reminding us that what absolutely certainly matters in software development is:

• Coding
• Testing
• Listening
• Designing

..  ergo, “That’s all there is to software. Anyone who tells you different is selling something.”

His compulsion to remind us of this core essence comes from the emergence of all kinds of newfangled buzzwords.. “Recently we’ve been hearing of “Agile 2.0” and “Beyond Agile”. The ad copy for these scary buzzwords includes initial architectural modeling, MSF Agile, AUP (Agile Unified Process), and Agile Model Driven Development (I note even the acronyms are getting longer), distributed teams, modeling tools, progress tracking tools.”

Certainly myself and the teams within which I have worked who had achieved success through our agility kept things lean and simple.

• No bug databases
• No electronic story card tracking
• No silos/departments
• No cubicles

Instead (and assuming you are a small, collocated team with access to usage/domain experts), try some naked agile.

“Drop the fancy tools. Drop the fancy rules. Get together. Talk, understand each other, trade ideas. Invent, code and deliver. Check in with the sponsors and users. Reflect on what you’re doing and see if you can get better.”

Read Alistair’s article in full