Category: complexity

Real Agile Teams Can Flock

December 9, 2008 by JurgenAppelo

People often try to solve problems by introducing rules in an organization, in the form of "When situation X occurs again, you must do Y." I admit that I am sometimes guilty of such behavior myself, though I am convinced that it is not the best approach. It is better to leave rule selection to individual team members, and instead focus on imposing the proper constraints. Agile software development should be about setting constraints, not rules.

It has been discovered that the flocking of birds can easily be modeled on a computer. This behavior, which is also apparent in many other kinds of animals, emerges through the application of a few very simple constraints:

1. Don't leave the group;
2. Don't bump into each other;
3. Fly in the same direction.

Specific implementations of these constraints are often used in the movie industry to create computer animated birds, bats, fish, penguins, you name it. (An example of such a model of flocking behavior is available here.)

Scope, resources and processes: change everything!

April 14, 2008 by JurgenAppelo

SNEAK PREVIEW!

As an agile writer, I like to write articles in multiple iterations. Feedback from readers is essential to me. There's no such thing as gettings things right the first time around. Not for programmers, and not for writers. So I've decided to give the readers of this site a chance to be the first to read my latest article.

The article is called Project Change, a Way of Life (PDF, 2.27MB)

In this article I try to link complexity science with agile software development. I attempt to show why there is no such thing as a best software development method, why managing scope is a too simplistic interpretation of “embracing change”, why corporate standards for processes are a bad thing, and why you will never get things exactly right.

The article includes comparisons to biology and other types of complex systems, several little nuggets of wisdom, and some personal experiences involving my car. Here's a little sample of what you can expect...