One of the guys at work passed the link to this ACM article by Philippe Kruchten entitled Voyage in the Agile Memeplex (Direct links: HTML, PDF). I found the article so preposterous that I had to reply back with responses to the group at work and thought I might add it here as well.

Some thoughts…

re: Agile as culture:

The same applies to agility; since there is not a clear underlying science or a well-packaged body of knowledge, much of it is really transmitted by oral tradition and by imitation (i.e., learning to do something by seeing it being done).

This is incorrect. There are any number of references in books, magazines, and of course, on the web regarding agile practices. To imply that to learn agile requires a “long education process, beginning at a very young age” is simply ludicrous.

In response to:

We can observe some of this in the agile world, where people say or write things such as ‘this is very waterfall’ when often they have never seen a waterfall project.

Whew! I must be the exception because, I’ve worked on several Waterfall projects (including a few relatively well run ones).

re: Agility as a Memeplex

Much of what is said here about agile methodologies could apply to any methodology or process. The author doesn’t explain why agile methodologies are particularly susceptible to miscommunication based on differing assumptions.

re: Decontexualization

Ah! Here we have it! Those agile methodology books are just too darn short! The author also seems to imply that it’s unfair to judge poorly run waterfall projects, but poorly run agile projects are fair game.

re: Agilese

Thank the heavens that no other technology oriented methodologies use jargon!

re: Agilism

little underlying theory or systematic organization of knowledge

I’m beginning to suspect that the author has not read any of the agile literature. Certainly both the “Extreme Programming Explained” and “Crystal Clear” books (being two handy ones on my desk at the moment) explain the rationale for all of the process components that he cites. Agile Alliance members also seem to me to be uncharacteristically open to criticism.

This section also seems to imply that the agile community is rather insular. On the contrary, my first exposure to XP concepts was at the 2001 Software Developers conference – a fairly broad cross-section of the industry.

I wonder if this author is opposed to agile methodologies because they come from the business world rather than academia? Certainly academic papers on agile lag behind the “popular” literature on the subject.

re: Agilitis

Wow – now we get personal. Apparently people who have studied and practiced some form of agile methodology are victims of delusion. The author again ignores the research, experimentation, and work experience that the various agile authors have brought to their work. The author finds evidence that he is right in “nasty” responses he received on Internet forums. Unheard of!

re: Agilology

Now the author moves on to question any studies that have been done. Is he working towards stating that no software methodology could possibly work?

re: Context, Context, Context

Was this written by the same individual? It’s hard to argue against using the correct context to explain when or why a particular approach may be appropriate. I haven’t seen any agile references that state it is the “one true methodology”.

re: Cooler Heads Must Prevail

Translation: I really only wrote this because some agile proponents were mean to me at a conference and on Usenet.