Be the change you want to see (agile)
Submitted by Charlie Audritsh on Thu, 05/10/2006 - 22:37.
perspectives
Be the change you want to see in the world. Sorry for the cliché, but I'm of the opinion that wise sayings become clichés because they express solid wisdom. Clichés are just over-used statements of wisdom. The icky part is the over-use from being shallowly bandied about, not the wisdom.
I've recently changed jobs, and the only thing about the new job that I'm not pleased as punch about is that it's not an agile shop. Here I will deepen my experience as a performance tester, now doing so at a software development company instead of an IT shop for a company whose main business is not software, and I get to do it with performance test tools that are both new and new to me! :-) (Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Testers, 2005) That, it seems to me, is good experience no matter where it lands.
But, personally, I'm very excited about agile and XP methodologies in general. The more I read about them, the more I hear of techniques that seem to avoid so many of the pitfalls so common to software development. Using scrum meetings to avoid green-shifting being just one example I've read about recently.
While interviewing, the thought "but it's not an agile shop" stuck in my mind like the only flaw in an otherwise wonderful situation will. I thought to myself, "they'd love agile if they were aware of it -- who in software wouldn't?" Then I also realized that one person -- and a dedicated, specialized tester at that -- does not a development methodology make.
So, I finally decided (without thinking the cliché) to be the change I wanted to see. I've posted the Agile Manifesto in my cube and added the note, "One person does not a development methodology make, but I hold these values, and this is how I work. To the extent that I don't, this is how I want to work."
I've already gotten a few comments/questions about Agile. Time will tell how far this awareness raisin' will go.
I've recently changed jobs, and the only thing about the new job that I'm not pleased as punch about is that it's not an agile shop. Here I will deepen my experience as a performance tester, now doing so at a software development company instead of an IT shop for a company whose main business is not software, and I get to do it with performance test tools that are both new and new to me! :-) (Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Testers, 2005) That, it seems to me, is good experience no matter where it lands.
But, personally, I'm very excited about agile and XP methodologies in general. The more I read about them, the more I hear of techniques that seem to avoid so many of the pitfalls so common to software development. Using scrum meetings to avoid green-shifting being just one example I've read about recently.
While interviewing, the thought "but it's not an agile shop" stuck in my mind like the only flaw in an otherwise wonderful situation will. I thought to myself, "they'd love agile if they were aware of it -- who in software wouldn't?" Then I also realized that one person -- and a dedicated, specialized tester at that -- does not a development methodology make.
So, I finally decided (without thinking the cliché) to be the change I wanted to see. I've posted the Agile Manifesto in my cube and added the note, "One person does not a development methodology make, but I hold these values, and this is how I work. To the extent that I don't, this is how I want to work."
I've already gotten a few comments/questions about Agile. Time will tell how far this awareness raisin' will go.