The Real History Behind Agile Development

http://blog.venturepact.com/the-real-history-behind-agile-development/

by Jonahmobiledev • 11 years ago

1 1 11 years ago

blog.venturepact.com

dalke• 11 years ago

This is a FALSE history, if for no other reason than that it completely ignores Rapid Application Development. Quoting from the Wikipedia page:

Rapid application development is a response to processes developed in the 1970s and 1980s, such as the Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method and other Waterfall models.
Starting with the ideas of Barry Boehm and others, James Martin developed the rapid application development approach during the 1980s at IBM and finally formalized it by publishing a book in 1991, Rapid Application Development.

By 1996, Steve McConnell's "Rapid Development" - which was an influential book for describing the different approaches to software development - had already firmly stated that evolutionary development and delivery were best practices.

Thus, when this false historical account states "Then… The Tables Turned at the Snowbird Ski Resort, Utah [In the mid 1990s]" it ignores decades of previous work and advice.

This follows the line of many Agile proponents, which goes something like "In the beginning the was Waterfall, and it was horrible. Then in the late 1990s our heroes brought us Agile. Rejoice in Agile, for there is nothing else but Waterfall, and we don't want to do that."

The Real History Behind Agile Development

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