Many people and companies think of Agile as some kind of Laissez-Faire approach to project management and software development. Agile is in fact a very rigid structure on how to do things so that there may be flexibility in what to do.
Agile project management is based on advanced project management concepts such as earned-value management (EVM) and phased rolling planning.
Agile software development is based on continuous quality control, other practices that are known to generate quality and a tight feedback loop with stakeholders.
Newton wood has some huge ant hills - this is one of them. © Copyright Brian Henley and licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence, click image for details.
There is no grand master plan or architect for an ant hill. Ants simply follow simple behavioural rules. The ant hill emerges as a result of millions of ants mindlessly following these rules.
Greg, what an ant hill! I think that’s the biggest I’ve ever seen. Great comparison between the work of ants and the agile process. The rigid structure of agile can be a brilliant way of rapidly building multiple blocks into a huge hill. I It usually bites less than ants though!
Luke Winter
Community Manager
OneDesk
You really think I have managed to come up with a new metaphor for agile? That would be wonderful. BTW had a brief look at your web site and it seems like an interesting product.
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