Dear Junior
If you would observe a famous author during a workday to get insights in how such people work, you might come out with a report along these lines.
"After breakfast, Famous Author sits down at the typewriter. She then punches the keys, using the tip of her fingers, repeatedly. From time to time she picks a new blank page and roll it into the typewriter. She continues until early afternoon, except for a lunch break, whereafter she walks around in town taking pictures of people."
Even the Famous Author herself might describe her workday in a similar way ("do always write at least ten pages a day" or "only write when inspired"), describing the structure of the work, or the ceremonies surrounding it.
Correct as these descriptions might be, they totally miss the point. They tell you nothing about weaving a plot, about evolution of characters, about where to start the story, about how to finish it, or other things that makes the work worth reading.
Unfortunately, I have the feeling that many descriptions of agile practices make the same mistake.
Yours
Dan
Agile programming is typing fast.
ReplyDeleteDear Stathis
ReplyDeleteI believe an "agile author" might very well be a fast typewriter. Even more important, such an author would focus on improving how to get better effect of the writing, whatever its level of speed.
For example, she might notice that she makes a lot of small typos that take time to go back and fix, would start using a real-time spell checker that detects mistakes immediately, and can be fixed on-the-fly by the author.
However, independently of how many tools you have to improve your ability to crank out text - it is still just some observable. To get to what authorship is about we must try to get inside the writer's mind to learn about what enables us to write a good story - that is where we find the "heart of authorship". And that is what I think Agile is trying to address.
Yours
Dan