Clean Agile Quotes

“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.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“If a change to the requirements breaks your architecture, then your architecture sucks.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“Adding manpower to a late project makes it later.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“We programmers simply do not know how long things will take. This isn’t because we are incompetent or lazy; it’s because there is simply no way to know how complicated a task is going to be until that task is engaged and finished. But, as we’ll see, all is not lost.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“A good manager drives a project to be good enough, fast enough, cheap enough, and done as much as necessary. A good manager manages the coefficients on these attributes rather than demanding that all those coefficients are 100%. It is this kind of management that Agile strives to enable.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“QA and Acceptance Tests If QA has not already begun to write the automated acceptance tests, they should start as soon as the IPM ends. The tests for stories that are scheduled for early completion should be done early. We don’t want completed stories waiting for acceptance tests to be written.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“Working overtime is not a way to show your dedication to your employer. What it shows is that you are a bad planner, that you agree to deadlines to which you shouldn’t agree, that you make promises you shouldn’t make, that you are a manipulable laborer and not a professional.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“Agile is a process wherein a project is subdivided into iterations. The output of each iteration is measured and used to continuously evaluate the schedule. Features are implemented in the order of business value so that the most valuable things are implemented first. Quality is kept as high as possible. The schedule is primarily managed by manipulating scope.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“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. The reason we want to know this as early as possible is so that we can manage the situation. You see, this is what managers do. Managers manage software projects by gathering data and then making the best decisions they can based on that data. Agile produces data. Agile produces lots of data. Managers use that data to drive the project to the best possible outcome.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“There is no such thing as quick and dirty. Anything dirty is slow. The only way to go fast, is to go well.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“Software is a compound word. 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.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“We in this industry sorely need to increase our professionalism. We fail too often. We ship too much crap. We accept too many defects. We make terrible trade-offs. Too often, we behave like unruly teenagers with a new credit card.



Martin, Robert C.. Clean Agile (Robert C. Martin Series) . Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“To do Agile right, you had to work in pairs, write tests first, refactor, and commit to simple designs. You had to work in short cycles, producing executable output in each. You had to communicate with business on a regular and continuous basis.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“But if you want to understand what Agile is really all about, there is no better way than to study XP. XP is the prototype, and the best representative, of the essential core of Agile.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“The team is working along at a certain productivity. Then new staff is added. Productivity plummets for a few weeks as the new people suck the life out of the old people. Then, hopefully, the new people start to get smart enough to actually contribute.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“So now we enter the Death March Phase of the project. Customers are angry. Stakeholders are angry. The pressure mounts. Overtime soars. People quit. It’s hell.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“If only we could pull this off one more time. If only we could just say we were done with implementation. But we can’t, because the thing about implementation is that is actually has to be done. Analysis and design are not binary deliverables. They do not have unambiguous completion criteria. There’s no real way to know that you are done with them. So we might as well be done on time.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“This is the world of the software development team. It’s a world in which dates are frozen and requirements are continuously changing. And somehow in that context, the development team must drive the project to a good outcome.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“Analysis and design are not binary deliverables. They do not have unambiguous completion criteria. There’s no real way to know that you are done with them.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“The reality is that a good project manager understands that these four attributes have coefficients. A good manager drives a project to be good enough, fast enough, cheap enough, and done as much as necessary. A good manager manages the coefficients on these attributes rather than demanding that all those coefficients are 100%. It is this kind of management that Agile strives to enable.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics

“This physics constrains all projects to obey an unassailable trade-off called the Iron Cross of project management. Good, fast, cheap, done: Pick any three you like. You can’t have the fourth.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile: Back to Basics