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I am not sure if this falls into Agile or not (proponents seem to differ), but I don't think you can build a house just driven by customer requirements and thei

I am not sure if this falls into Agile or not (proponents seem to differ), but I don't think you can build a house just driven by customer requirements and their priorities. Imagine, how it would look like: - "Well, my number one priority is to have a shelter from elements.." OK, so we build the roof first. - "OK, now I would also like to stand in there." Uh, then, lift up the roof and build some walls around it. - "How do I get in? The trapdoor in the roof is too high now, I know there is a ladder, but.." Let's make some door, then. - "Right, but the floor inside is a bit dirty. Can you do something about that?" Sure, let's put some concrete inside. Etc. The reason why you can do something like this in programming is a) it's abstract, there is no extra cost for changing things, b) you do as much as possible modularly (OOP, FP, TDD...) anyway. But I can't really imagine any other engineering project without (at least a bit of) waterfall.

ljf 13y ago
http://brainslink.com/2010/12/be-agile-build-a-house-iteratively/ http://brainslink.com/2010/12/be-agile-build-a-house-iterati... Not that I agree that the linked process would be a good process for building the average house - Agile is only more efficient if there is a high risk of requirements changing or of being unknown. I (think) many people have a fairly set idea of what they want from a house, and have a finite amount of funding for it, where a functioning roof, but missing walls would be a major problem :) That said I think these fit the bill for agile buildings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutyagin_House http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutyagin_House http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1544827/Gangster-who-built-worlds-tallest-log-cabin.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1544827/Gangster-w... http://gizmodo.com/10-incredible-diy-castles-built-by-just-one-single-pers-1452608410 http://gizmodo.com/10-incredible-diy-castles-built-by-just-o...
pegas1 13y ago
Agile is not about letting the customer to run the development process. It is about continuous communication with the customer to hammer on details and for better understanding of the subject domain. so, in your building example, the project assumes doors will have handles. Decision about the color and shape of door handles is postponed and your wife can have her pick right at the moment the door is ready.

ljf 13y ago

http://brainslink.com/2010/12/be-agile-build-a-house-iteratively/ http://brainslink.com/2010/12/be-agile-build-a-house-iterati... Not that I agree that the linked process would be a good process for building the average house - Agile is only more efficient if there is a high risk of requirements changing or of being unknown. I (think) many people have a fairly set idea of what they want from a house, and have a finite amount of funding for it, where a functioning roof, but missing walls would be a major problem :) That said I think these fit the bill for agile buildings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutyagin_House http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutyagin_House http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1544827/Gangster-who-built-worlds-tallest-log-cabin.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1544827/Gangster-w... http://gizmodo.com/10-incredible-diy-castles-built-by-just-one-single-pers-1452608410 http://gizmodo.com/10-incredible-diy-castles-built-by-just-o...

pegas1 13y ago

Agile is not about letting the customer to run the development process. It is about continuous communication with the customer to hammer on details and for better understanding of the subject domain. so, in your building example, the project assumes doors will have handles. Decision about the color and shape of door handles is postponed and your wife can have her pick right at the moment the door is ready.