And the problem with agile is...

I get drawn into a lot of debates about the pros and cons of agile (or maybe I just like a good fight?) and the standard attack pattern around quality is starting to become sooooo passe. So I'm going to tackle it here, in the hope that I can use a one-link defense in future. Kind of like TinyURL but for arguments.

Firstly, let me go on record by saying that I most certainly am an agile proponent, but at the same time I don't believe it is the single, solitary answer to how we should do everything in technology. You have to have more than one tool in your kit.

So let me go ahead and get this off my chest:

Agile != doing a poor job

Agile doesn't mean doing no testing, it means doing just enough testing to ensure appropriate quality.

Agile doesn't mean doing no documentation, it means doing just enough documentation to effectively convey meaning and understanding.

Agile doesn't mean doing no architecture, it means doing just enough design work to understand how to start iterating the solution.

Agile doesn't mean having no requirements, it means having just enough detail for the foreseeable future and embracing change beyond that.

It is also about appreciating that just enough can mean different things in different projects, different business problems, and different parts of the system.

Come on people, these aren't new ideas!

To be fair, I can see where some of this criticism comes from. There are cowboys out there who use agile as an excuse to dispense with necessary diligence or take ill-advised shortcuts. When it all comes crashing down, it does sound better to say "hey, we were doing agile" than "hey, we couldn't really be bothered planing this work properly" for the individuals concerned. The fact is that crappy engineers exist. There is no such thing as an SDLC that turns good engineers into poor engineers, we just started accepting that as an excuse.

If agile does have something to answer for here, it is that this kind of poor work is much more visible much earlier (if concealment is your game). The reality is the same team would make the same (or worse) errors in judgement regardless of the approach they used, you just wouldn't know about it for 12 months - and by then, who knows whose fault that was?

Don't accept output any crappier than you otherwise would just because it has agile stamped on it - if anything you should expect better, because you will have had more opportunities for course correction along the way.