4. Agile Manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.
5. Libertarians Embrace
• Limited government
• Adhesion to the Constitutional framework
• State’s power (10th Amendment) over Federal power
– The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it
to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
• Look to our Founding Fathers for wisdom
6. Roots of Libertarianism
• Began in the late 18th century as a movement towards self-government
and away from aristocracy
• Libertarianism—or classical Liberalism—grew out of the philosophers of
the Enlightenment and the discovery of natural laws
• John Locke’s theory of social contract
– individuals would agree to form a state that would provide a "neutral judge", acting to
protect the lives, liberty, and property of those who lived within it.
– Which led to “government with the consent of the governed”
8. Men of Science & Reason
– Jefferson
• “Science is my passion, politics my duty.”
– Washington
• While not a formal scientist, but…
• Learned mathematics as a surveyor
• Conducted scientific experiments at Mount Vernon
• Offered to send soldiers to help excavate a mastodon discovered in NY
• Said to have been taking his own pulse at the moment he died
– Adams
• Studied physics at Harvard
• Helped found the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
– Franklin – America’s foremost scientist of his day
10. A Mathematician chimes in…
• In an advancing society, any restriction
on liberty reduces the number of things
tried and so reduces the rate of
progress. In such a society freedom of
action is granted to the individual, not
because it gives him greater satisfaction
but because if allowed to go his own
way he will on the average serve the
rest of us better than under any orders
we know how to give.
• H. B. Phillips
11. Founders as Agilists?: Washington
– Every post is honorable in which a
man can serve his country.
– We should not look back unless it is
to derive useful lessons from past
errors, and for the purpose of
profiting by dearly bought
experience.
12. Founders as Agilists?: Jefferson
– It is wonderful how much may be
done if we are always doing.
– I have no fear that the result of our
experiment will be that men may be
trusted to govern themselves
without a master.
13. Founders as Agilists?: Franklin
– Beware of little expenses. A small
leak will sink a great ship.
– Do not fear mistakes. You will know
failure. Continue to reach out.
– Without continual growth and
progress, such words as
improvement, achievement, and
success have no meaning.
15. Modern Individual = Agile Individual?
• The historian of science Gerald Horton defined
a modern individual in terms of four criteria:
– ‘Being an informed participant citizen’
– ‘Having a marked sense of personal efficacy (being
able to control one’s own destiny and events in
the world)’
– ‘Being highly independent and autonomous’
– ‘Being open to new ideas and experiences’
16. Agile is Liberty
I think that ultimately, Extreme Programming has mushroomed in use and
interest, not because of pair-programming or refactoring, but because, taken
as a whole, the practices define a developer community freed from the
baggage of Dilbertesque corporations.
Agile Manifesto History
17. Questions?
That which is meddling, touching everything, will work
but ill, and disappointment bring.
Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism
Sarah E. Welch
@sarahewelch
sarahewelch@gmail.com
Editor's Notes
Let’s have a little election year fun. This is my thesis. If Agile were an eligible voter, Agile would be a registered Libertarian. That was your first clue that I’m a nerd. I started my talk with “My thesis”. More to follow, I promise Full disclosure: I am not a registered Libertarian, so this isn’t an advertisement for the party
Don't worry, we're not talking left & right today. I said that we were going to have fun, remember? :)
This is where we’re going today. If you haven’t seen a diagram like this one before, it’s a Nolan Chart, a political diagram popularized by David Nolan, one of the founders of the American Libertarian party—the fastest growing party in the US, btw. I contend that agile frameworks are towards the top of this chart and methodologies such as the PMBOK and RUP are towards the bottom of this chart in the authoritarian dungeons.
Ken Schwaber, anyone?
Our founding fathers were inspired by philosophers such as John Locke as they built a government here in the new world.Here, I want to clear up a bit of confusion with regard to our founding fathers. Some politicians like to call on the faith of the founding fathers when making their pitches, but our founding fathers believed strongly in separation of church and state. While they were men of faith, they were also men of science and reason. That’s what is more relevant and what I’m talking about today.
The founders borrowed the term “experiment” from science. Like scientific experiments, this new government was sometimes loud, messy, and inefficient, but overall, it’s worked better than other forms of government. In my agile practice, this is the same argument that I use. Each of the teams is an experiment. They try things out. If it doesn’t work, they quit doing it. If it works, they keep doing it and tell others.
Like so many terms in politics, there are many definitions for Libertarianism—many of them in conflict with each other. So, we’re going to start with *my* definition.