The Laws of Software Process

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Agile and the Orders of Ignorance

able to identify the degree of incorrectness? Each of these leads us, like the

missile making its adjustments as it rises, closer toward the target.

Agile and Second Order Ignorance

This is what Agile was made for and is, not surprisingly, where tradi-

tional process falls down. We start at 2OI (Exhibit 7), not knowing what we

do not know. The challenge is to break into the cycle somehow.

The Agile approaches very strongly address all three 2OI levels. The dis-

covery cycles and the focus on peer inspections, testing, and user execu-

tion all encourage and assist an environment in which discovery occurs.

There is no expectation that the system will somehow magically work the

first time. The approaches almost universally ...