Clean Agile: Back to Basics (Robert C. Martin Series)

by Robert C. Martin

Good, fast, cheap, done: Pick any three you like. You can’t have the fourth.

Some folks think that Agile is about going fast. It’s not. It’s never been about going fast. Agile is about knowing, as early as possible, just how screwed we are.

Everyone knows we can go twice as fast by doubling the staff. Actually, this is exactly the opposite of the case. Brooks’ law22 states: Adding manpower to a late project makes it later.

The word “ware” means “product.” The word “soft” means easy to change. Therefore, software is a product that is easy to change. Software was invented because we wanted a way to quickly and easily change the behavior of our machines. Had we wanted that behavior to be hard to change, we would have called it hardware.

We developers should celebrate change because that’s why we are here. Changing requirements is the name of the whole game. Those changes are the justification for our careers and our salaries.