KenSchwaberTalk

See http://www.xp2002.org/talksinfo/schwaber.pdf

Ken emphasized the importance of people and team working rather than the academic study of agile practices.--RachelDavies

It amazes me that today's software professionals still need reminding of this. Who writes software? People. Who manages software projects? People. Who is software written for? People. Well blow me, that must mean that people are an important consideration when we develop software.... ;-)

Peopleware (DeMarco) was written in 1987 and wasn't ground breaking then (other than that someone actually wrote it down). Yet in my experience the reaction of managers to papers like "People as non-linear 1st order components" (1999, AlistairCockburn) (PeopleAsNonLinearComponents?) is one of amazement. It's not that they don't get it - sometimes - rather that it never crossed their minds that managing people was an essential part (the only meaningful part?) of their role as a software development manager.

What does it take to break down the perception that all the problems in software development can be solved with process and tools? (Yes this ias a deliberate reference to the AgileManifesto.)

Ok, I feel better now I've vented! --TimBacon

Agreed, the conference format does tend towards academic papers and these tend to focus on tools and measurements. I liked FrankWestphal's "Experience Exchange" session, that's where we heard about ErikLundhsFastXpTeam. -- RachelDavies

One of the university types at the conference commented to me that it wasn't that easy to do research into XP. As KentBeck said, you can't truly understand XP unless you do it, and academics can't generally do XP. That means they tend to focus on the parts they can understand - the practices and tools.