Dispersed Agile Development

At OOPSLA 2001, a panel of the most distinguished methodologists of the day was asked "How would you do agile development where the team are a geographically distributed workforce, each working in his own home?"

They more or less unanimously said "We wouldn't even try!"

  • Distributed open source projects have worked successfully for some years.

    • Yes, but they don't work to commercial deadlines and requirements; nor within commercial confidentiality. And they don't get paid!

  • There are commercial precedents, even as early as the 1970s.

    • In Cobol....

  • Distributed Pair Programming has been shown to be feasible, especially with broadband connections.

    • But only in internal projects or academic exercises.

  • The use of agile methods reduces the scope for misunderstandings between co-workers.

    • Ha ha ha! Ho ho ho! Tell me another one!

  • We have some patterns for distributed agile development, and want to compile more.

    • Oh yes? Let's see them then....

  • See PatternsForDispersion.

  • Distributed working means you can earn money while living on the beach or up your favorite mountain, or wherever you like, without having to commute every day and without wearing a tie all the time, or sharing a smelly grey office with people who smoke or cough.

    • This exciting new method of software development is clearly the way of the future. When can I start?