Today we have short Q&A about agile practices with out esteemed guests Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Martin Luther King, Jr, Gandhi, Bruce Lee, & Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Question: Why do you believe there is benefits in building & watching metrics and then projecting dates versus utilizing pre-defined project dates?

Churchill: The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

Albert Einstein: A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

Question: Is this because full discovery early on is hard to achieve?

Martin Luther King, Jr.: Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

Albert Einstein: Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature.

Question: The what did you tell your project manager the last time he asked you for an accurate estimate?

Gandhi: I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.

Mark Twain: I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know.

Question: Some managers like to create their own artificial estimates to fit their plans, does this work out well in some cases?

Albert Einstein: No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

Mark Twain: Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

Question: But wouldn’t it be fair to say that without a estimate to hold somebody to, that the work item will not be completed in a timely manner.

Bruce Lee: Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

Question: If there are shortcomings in the waterfall methodology, should those just be addressed in the methodology instead of creating entire new development method?

Albert Einstein: Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

Question: Do you believe in following Scrum as prescribed or do you believe “Scrum But” is acceptable?

Bruce Lee: Learn the principle, abide by the principle, and dissolve the principle. In short, enter a mold without being caged in it. Obey the principle without being bound by it.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment… If it doesn't turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.

Question: What would attract a team to using an Agile approach with a loose definition of procedure such as KanBan or “Scrum But”

Churchill: To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

Bruce Lee: All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.

Gandhi: Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.

Question: If you have gathered metrics using an Agile approach and your manager demands you to complete a feature in a timespan that your metrics say is not possible, how do handle a response telling them that?

Churchill: The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.

Mark Twain: Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.

Question: It is popular to display a large visual task board so that the team is transparent to anybody interested, why is this information important to be constantly available?

Churchill: A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

Gandhi: An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

Question: When starting a new project do you like to create detailed documentation before hand to make development easier?

Franklin D. Roosevelt: Are you laboring under the impression that I read these memoranda of yours? I can't even lift them.

Question: Ok so you may not like a lot of documentation but how can you get started with none?

Martin Luther King, Jr.: You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.

Bruce Lee: Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Question: Having removed so many potential roles and overhead in a development team, should people in those roles be in fear of losing their job?

Franklin D. Roosevelt: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.