Broken Agile: Stories from the Trenches, Second Edition

CHAPTER 16

Some Process Required

Although the flavors of Agile vary on their level of prescriptiveness, it doesn’t mean that you can’t still have other processes in place that add value. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard “we’re Agile” when a team doesn’t want to adopt any rules or process. If you ask about documentation, or lack thereof, they say “we’re Agile.” If you ask about the mountain of technical debt, they say “we’re Agile.” If you ask about design, they say “we’re Agile.” The point is that beyond the roles, meetings, and methods that each flavor of Agile prescribes, there is a need for other processes to ensure that quality software is being delivered. The counterargument is that having any kind of process is “anti-Agile” ...