The benefits of Agility are not sustainable unless engineering practices are adopted in the earnest.
Agile has been adopted in many
companies, but the applications of engineering practices are rarely an agenda
topic. How important are engineering practices to Agile. What are the essentials
to Agile success?
Engineering practices are the core. Everything else is built
on that. You achieve the ability to be agile in your software
development by following engineering practices that allow you to adapt as efficiently
as possible. Then things like Scrum and a more flexible mindset simply allow
you to leverage the agility you've already built in.
It is essential to have engineering practices. A lot seems to come down to the culture of the technical
team. If they are enthusiastic about technology and are up to date with best
practice; then usually engineering is
high on the agenda. If the technical team is complacent or arrogant; then they can focus more on planning meetings
and less on the engineering side. If the feedback cycle is in place, then the
need for good engineering practices should be discovered pretty rapidly. Getting
a successful product into market is great, but if you cannot maintain that
product over the long haul, then your company and product will fade away.
The benefits of Agility are not sustainable unless engineering
practices are adopted in the earnest. So
while practices related to business analysis and project management will yield
quick wins, the optimal level of benefits and impact come in only when engineering
practices are adopted. Agile is
the software engineering management framework; design, code and test in the
presence of continuous integration, automated testing and test-driven
development are the software development framework. Without both in place,
there will be at best marginal success and at worst, complete failure.
While agile principles are
essentially about people, it doesn't mean that engineering problems such as refactoring,
clean code and continuous integration can be ignored. The original signatories
of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development thought it was important. As
one of the principles is..."Continuous attention to technical excellence
and good design enhances agility"
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