Agile Management for Software Engineering: Applying the Theory of Constraints for Business Results

Chapter 12. Setting the Governing Rules

Allow Adaptive Behavior to Emerge

Section 1 argues that traditional project management that defines tasks at a fine grained level and track and report those tasks is outdated. Supporters of Agile software development methods say such fine grained planning and tracking is unnecessary, inaccurate, and wasteful. The uncertain and nonlinear nature of software development means that both fine grained plans and effort-based estimates are likely to be wrong.

The essence of Agile software development is that it is highly delegated. Many Agilists prefer the term, “self-organizing.” The point is that plans should be made at a high level and the desired adaptive behavior should be left alone to emerge from the ...