For the past two days I've been at
XP Day
2006 . This morning I arrived at
Ironmongers Hall on autopilot and took a seat
for the keynote speech, not yet fully awake. I was woken sharply by
noise; a lot of it. The session,
Love in the Age of Software by
Robert Biddle and
James Noble had started.
It was a truly bizarre session in terms of its style. Lots of
noise, music, presenters talking over one another, repeating what
the other had said to simulate some kind of echo. I was confused at
times and just couldn't figure out what was being said, but I
eventually tuned in and was able to follow along. That said, credit
goes to the presenters for doing something different. It played out
as a tumultuous conversation between the two presenters, who
dropped in and out of different characters. I thought getting us
all to stand up and recite the
Agile Manifesto , like the Lord's Prayer, was
worth a chuckle. As was the short dialogue about which is more
macho, a
train wreck or a
death march .
I liked the direction they were taking when they declared their
distaste for
wimpy agile :
- System metaphor: Most neglected practice - EXPUNGED.
- Onsite customer: Apparently impractical and unrealistic - EXCUSED.
- User stories: Promise to have conversations - AUTOMATED.
- Planning game: Embrace change .. but not for us - RESISTED.
The essential message was this: If the customer and the developers don't love one another then the agile magic cannot happen .
