What if the 12 Principles of Agile Computing were applied to the government?

[Taverner]

http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

We follow these principles:

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer
through early and continuous delivery
of valuable software.

Welcome changing requirements, even late in
development. Agile processes harness change for
the customer's competitive advantage.

Deliver working software frequently, from a
couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a
preference to the shorter timescale.

Business people and developers must work
together daily throughout the project.

Build projects around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they need,
and trust them to get the job done.

The most efficient and effective method of
conveying information to and within a development
team is face-to-face conversation.

Working software is the primary measure of progress.

Agile processes promote sustainable development.
The sponsors, developers, and users should be able
to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

Continuous attention to technical excellence
and good design enhances agility.

Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount
of work not done--is essential.

The best architectures, requirements, and designs
emerge from self-organizing teams.

At regular intervals, the team reflects on how
to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts
its behavior accordingly.


What do you think? Granted some things need to bee changed for the fit...but you get the basic idea

[Kennah]

1. Republicans already use it ...

... but the customer is the corporation.

[Taverner]

3. Ah yes, but what if the customer was the electorate?

[Posteritatis]

15. That's crazy talk. To the reeducation mines with you, post-haste! (nt)

[Taverner]

4. Let's put it this way:

Our highest priority is to satisfy the electorate
through early and continuous delivery
of valuable services.

Welcome changing requirements, even late in
development. Government processes harness change for
the electorate's advantage.

Deliver working government frequently, from a
couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a
preference to the shorter timescale.
All three branches of government must work
together daily throughout the project.

Build projects around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they need,
and trust them to get the job done.

The most efficient and effective method of
conveying information to and within a development
team is face-to-face conversation.

Working government is the primary measure of progress.
Good government policy promotes sustainable development.
The Government, its support and citizens should be able
to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

Continuous attention to technical excellence
and good design enhances agility.

Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount
of work not done--is essential.

The best architectures, requirements, and designs
emerge from self-organizing teams.

At regular intervals, the team reflects on how
to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts
its behavior accordingly.

[Tesha]

2. And make them stand up continuously while filibustering! (NT)

[some guy]

5. The government would be more distributed

and socialist.

At least, if the "customer" was "We the people" - it would have to be (distributed and socialist) because the people are spread across thousands and thousands of miles. Needs in a densely urban environment are different than those in a sparsely populated rural environment. High desert is different than subtropical.

The overall approach would have to be dedication to efficiency without regard to ego.

[Taverner]

6. I have no problem with Socialism

we just have to give it another name - how about 'National Togetherness'?

[some guy]

11. I'm not opposed to Socialism either

under any name.

[LoZoccolo]

7. Or /The Cult Of Done Manifesto/.

http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/the-cult-of-done-manifesto.html

[Taverner]

10. That is insanely beautiful

Or Beautifully Insane

Not sure which...

[JoePhilly]

8. I've worked with many "Agile" teams ...

And most are "Chaos" with a new name for the associated "process".

As a simple example ... let's look at 2 of the "principles" you list ...

1) "Welcome changing requirements, even late in
development. Agile processes harness change for
the customer's competitive advantage."

2) "Continuous attention to technical excellence
and good design enhances agility."

The first principle above (endless changes to requirements), in practice, OBLITERATES the second (technical excellence and good design)...

To be able to do #2, you need a certain amount of STABILITY. The first principle above, in practice, gives the development team a license to CHANGE what ever they want, when ever they want. And they do. Such late changes have always occurred in development, and this principle simply gives the development teams a license to do it. The second, is a statement of apple pie, impossible to enforce.

[Taverner]

9. Well, you see the first problem needing solving

Granted, this is a problem endemic to any group construct

But this is what needs a solution

How to have both (1) and (2)

There does need to be a last call, however. 1 day before release is not the time to introduce some new feature. Or anything for that matter.

That's what needs to be in the early schedule for version 2.0

[JoePhilly]

12. Understand ...

In my experience, software development teams usually hold almost all the power. And they fight "project management" for control.

In many, many, instances, development teams adopt "agile" because it legitimizes their ultimate ability to change what ever they want when ever they want.

In most development process efforts, such behavior by development is "bad" ... development teams often adopt agile because it allows this same behavior to be "good".

Of course in many cases, the development teams don;t truly adopt agile at all, they just adopt the terminology. And with that, late changes that were once an issue, are now examples of the development team responding quickly to customer needs.

I'm not against Agile deveopment per se ... it has some good benefits ... but I don't see it applying to politics very well, for some of the same reasons.

[gulliver]

13. That's good!

We need something to solve the "Government Crisis." The current process is pre-waterfall.

[slackmaster]

14. Congress would try farming most of its responsibilities out to boiler rooms in India

:shrug:

[Naturyl]

16. Don't we already have a big enough infestation of business thinking in government?

Granted, most of these sound okay, but there are plenty of business-speak keywords like "team," etc.

It's better to keep all business-think at arm's length from government as a matter of principle.

[DavidDvorkin]

17. "We trust in the latest buzzwords to transform software development."