Over the past 3-5 years, the word “agile” has become so common it starts to lose meaning. While ‘agile development’ is perhaps more defined, ‘agile’ and ‘agility’ are used by vendors all of the time. BEA used it 4+ years ago. I don’t know when Microsoft started using it (but they have bigger ads). Others do also.
The goals of ‘agility’ when talking about IT are important, but perhaps we are missing something. What I hear more often is that we need systems that are pliable. The basis of the system is fine, but it needs to be molded and sculpted to meet the needs of the here and now. We don’t need rigid systems that need to be dismantled and rebuilt to accommodate change, we need pliable systems that accommodate a certain amount of change easily.
I was reading a guest article by Naomi Bloom titled “It’s all about the models” over on deal architect. You want to get things right the first time, but you can only do that if it is really your third time (you’ve ‘been there, done that’). But times change, so even when ‘done right’ you know you will need to change. The more pliable a system is, the happier and more effective(?) the people using the system will be. A key in my mind is that the shaping is done by the end consumer if at all possible, or at least the ‘power user.’
[tags]agile, pliable, systems, development[/tags]
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