OOPSLA 2003 Workshop
"Are Agile Methodologies Really Different?"
Sunday, October 26th 2003, 8:30 - 17:00

Jens Coldewey

Coldewey Consulting

Curd-Jürgens-Str. 4

D-81739 München

Germany

Tel: +49 (700) 26533939

Fax: +49 (89) 74995703

jens_coldewey@acm.org

http://www.coldewey.com

Pete McBreen

McBreen Consulting

133 West Terrance Point

Cochrane, Alberta T0L0W4

Canada

Tel: +1 (403) 870 4941

pete@mcbreen.ab.ca

http://www.mcbreen.ab.ca

 

Mary Poppendieck

Poppendieck LLC

7666 Carnelian Lane

Eden Prairie, MN 55346

USA

Tel: +1 (952) 934 7998

Fax: +1 (952) 975 0012

mary@poppendieck.com

http://www.poppendieck.com

Position Papers Online now

Abstract

With Adaptive Software Development, Crystal, Extreme Programing, Feature Driven Development, Lean Development, and Scrum the ecosystem of agile methods seems to stabilize. Though they all use different metaphors and approaches to software development, their hands-on results are so similar, that readers may ask themselves, whether they are really different methodologies. Practitioneers have had the best results combining elements of different agile methodologies -- a possibility that defines a common species in biology.

This sequel to last year's OOPSLA workshop "Commonalities of Agile Methodologies" explores this question in depth in a highly interactive setting. It may work on questions like "What is different anyhow and why?", "What forces drive particular solutions?", or "How does a solution deal with limitations?".

Contents and Objectives

Though based on the same values, the agile methods seem to be quite different at first sight. Starting from the fifteen principles of XP over the 22 tools of the Lean Development toolset to the open principles of ASD, Crystal, and Scrum the level of detail and coverage seems to be unique for every method. However, a closer look reveals that most methodologies are compatible. Most practices of XP fit to certain priciples of ASD or Scrum, Lean Development might easily fit into the Crystal methods family and so on. It is easy to argue that the differences between the methods come from different metaphors or backgrounds rather than from inherently unique solutions.

To discuss these issues and thus get additional insights into the nature of agile development is the objective of this workshop. The workshop team decides at the beginning of the workshop, whether it wishes to set additional objectives, such as a formal report.

This workshop is a sequel to last year's workshop "Commonalities of Agile Methodologies". While last year's workshop focussed on identifying what is common between the methodologies, this year's event concentrates on learning from the differences and how to exploit them for a specific organization or project.

Attendees

Every interested practitioner, consultant, teacher, academic, or otherwise interested person is invited to apply for attendance, regardless of whether they have participated in the 2002 workshop or not. We primarily seek submissions from people who have practical experience with one or more agile methods. Applicants (and Organizers!) need to submit a position statement no later than September 8th via E-Mail to jens_coldewey@acm.org or mary@poppendieck.com.

Position Papers
AndySchneider.pdf Ken Schwaber (Steve Bannerman)
Angela Martin, James Noble Mary Poppendieck (Steve Berczuk)
Christian Sepulveda (Pam Rostal) Tom Poppendieck
Jens Coldewey Rebecca Wirfs-Brock
All Papers in one file: oopsla2003.workshop2.pdf

Unfortunatly some of the authors won't be able to join the workshop: Pam Rostal, Steve Bannerman and Steve Berczuk. Mary Poppendieck volunteered to proxy Steve Bannerman.

Workshop Format

The workshop is highly interactive, so the format will be an issue of the entire group. The following list is the suggestion of the organizers how to proceed:

Final Report

The workshop attendees are supposed to agree on a format for the final report. Possible choices are e.g. a pattern collection, experience reports, or stories. After the conference the report will be compiled to 10 - 15 page available via the WWW. No poster session is planned during the conference.

About the Organizers

Jens Coldewey (jens_coldewey@acm.org) is an independent consultant from Munich, Germany, specialized in deploying object-oriented techniques and agile development in large organizations. He was program chair of the EuroPLoP '98 conference, member of the program committee of the PLoP '98, PLoP '99, EuroPLoP '99, XP 2002 - 2003, Agile Development Conferece 2003 and OOPSLA 2003 conference. Among others he was co-leader of the ,Human Issues of Agile Processes" workshop at OOPSLA 2001 and the ,Commonalities of Agile Methodologies" workshop at OOPSLA 2002. He writes a regular column on Agile Development in ObjektSpektrum, the German SIGS/101 magazine on OO and is founding member of the Agile Alliance Non-Profit Organisation.

Pete McBreen (petemcbreen@acm.org) is an independent consultant from Cochrane, Alberta, Canada. Pete has been quoted as saying ,If Software development is not fun, there is something wrong with the process". This reflects his personal philosophy that "the software development process must support the ways that people naturally work. Software systems are such a fundamental part of any corporation that the sustained ability to enhance and extend systems is what matters most. Truly incremental object oriented development processes are a means of achieving this goal." Pete was an co-leader of the "Design for Maintenance" Workshop at OOPSLA 99, the "Deploying Lightweight Processes" workshop at OOPSLA 2000 and the ,Human Issues of Agile Processes" workshop at OOPSLA 2001.

Mary Poppendieck (mary@poppendieck.com) has over 30 years of experience as an engineer, IT manager, program manager and product development manager. A 20 year veteran of 3M, she is an expert in process control, lean manufacturing systems, and commercialization of hardware and software products. She is the president of Poppendieck.LLC (http://www.poppendieck.com) as well as Treasurer and Managing Director of AgileAlliance (http://www.agilealliance.org).

A popular writer and speaker, Poppendieck's tutorials on managing software development offer a fresh perspective on project management. She is the author of numerous articles, including "Lean Programming" and "Wicked Problems" in Software Development Magazine. Her book Lean Development; An Agile Toolkit will be published by Addison Wesley in June, 2003. She can be reached at mary@poppendieck.com. Additional papers may be found at http://www.poppendieck.com.