Better not to forget Quality while being Agile

Changing requirements and desire to make incremental features to get early feedback are the driving sources for being Agile aside with intention to follow computer fashion (Nevertheless, computer fashion  is changing more rapidly then women’s fashion as said by Mr. Branson) .

These are done to be sure eliminate external rework of requirements. Sometimes there happens communication misunderstandings, or requirements are not known at all. Then it is better to work iteratively, get early feedback and be Agile. But, …

But sometimes we forgot one of the key ingredients of Agility: it’s destructive creativity. We should not avoid to destruct part of what we have done if it is seen that it does not solid anymore. Do elaborate refactoring or redesigning if needed. Adding features may be the only concern of managers,  but developers will sustain the project, and quality should be one of their concern.

That is unfortunately too common to forget; it accumulates slowly.

One sprint will go with implementing a new feature flat, one sprint goes with security fixing and the user experience will be the focus of the next. Quality is newer a primary citizen, time is too short, dates are too close, all we need to do is implement new features as planned.

It accumulates slowly but the result will be software similar to the following “Agile House” (Got from net with tittle “Picasso’s House”, without managing to find original source to give a reference).

It is a product that we will be ashamed to use. Some windows are secured with iron bars, but some even do not have glasses. There is a balcony for user experience, but fence around it is missing. Even worse, when people actually begin to live in the house, it is discovered that toilet is missing in the third flat, and because infrastructure does not support, waste pipes for it have to be placed outside.

So better to do elaborate pruning to keep tree healthy. Iterative working on requirements often needs refactoring to reclaim quality. Everything should be coherent and the house should be kept tidy.