"Rolf" wrote:
[after generous snipping]

[Rolf, please try to format your posts so that they're not all one long 
block of text.. please]

> 8. The whole concept of Agile development can be applied in bits and
> pieces to any development.

True, but it is also true that when you combine these bits and pieces, you 
get more of the sum.

> it is hard to determine what exactly makes a
> development process agile or not. Not everything that looks/smells/feels
> agile is. That is why I said I had experience with a diluted form of it.
> In fact, my understanding of agile is as fuzzy as the concept itself.

>From where I stand, Agile is certainly not "fuzzy". After you've had 
experience with it, you would start develop an intuitive understanding of 
what is Agile, and what is not -- and you would be able to explain why.


> 9. I believe software development is like a marriage...

I've heard many software analogies before ("building software", "growing 
software", etc) but "marrying software" is a first! :-D


> 10. Why not use agile for our stuff? Well, we have 25 years of
> investment in our product, and it is written parts in Cobol, C, C++, C#,
> Java, web applications (asp, jsp, html, perl/CGI, javascript, ajax,
> etc.), Windows GUI's, X GUI's, command-line, batch, interactive. The
> biggest challenge is sometimes deciding whether to re-use a component or
> to re-write. In most cases, re-using makes most sense.

I fail to see your point. It doesn't matter what the project is, or the 
language, or how many years you've spent on it, or any of the things you 
mentioned. The only thing that changes with Agile, is how you approach 
software development. Agile addresses two big fallacies with project 
management: (1) men and months are interchangeable and (2) requirements 
never change.

Agile accepts the fact that software is written by people (for people), and 
that change happens. Most of the other principles flow out of these two 
realizations. Have you read the Agile Manifesto, and the twelve principles?

http://agilemanifesto.org/
http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

I can see people drawing biblical parallels already. :) However, if you want 
to have a real discussion about Agile, these are the points you should be 
addressing, not what you *think* Agile is. I'm starting to get tired of 
explaining what Agile is *not*.


> 11. The same type of processes and people that launched the shuttle also
> launched the Mars Climate orbiter:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter

Maybe with Agile, they would have launched it for less money, and ahead of 
schedule?

Vitaliy 

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