What (Else) Can Agile Learn from Complexity?
Thu, 2009-01-01 22:53 — Jurgen Appelo
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Add to calendarLevel: Practicing
Agile development has taken a number of concepts and principles from the study of complex adaptive systems. But since the birth of the Agile Manifesto, the study of complexity has not stopped. In this talk I give a number of ideas copied from complexity experts, and I will review what fitness landscapes, patches, power laws, and incompressibility could mean for agile software development.
Process/Mechanics
00:00-00:05 short introduction of complexity science
00:05-00:10 the problem of applying complexity concepts to management
00:10-00:40 applying complexity science to agile development (see learning outcomes)
00:40-00:45 Q&A
Learning outcomes
- Hierarchies are not a problem, they are natural;
- Prediction of velocity includes an (impossible) estimate of unknown problems;
- Patches of Scrums can be an alternative to Scrum of Scrums;
- ScrumButs are natural and necessary;
- Agile management is an often forgotten but crucial part of agile;
- A project with many strong interdependent parts can behave chaotically;
- All we will ever have are a variety of imperfect methods;
- A self-organizing team with the size of 8 should better be avoided;
- And several more…
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