Agile is gaining a tremendous amount of traction lately. I suspect that most of the new believers are those who have lived through multiple failed projects. There is nothing like a little “forced awareness”– in the form of a failed project– to wake you up to the fact your old beliefs about software development are no longer working. When you live through a painful failed project, you are more likely to adopt new beliefs and change your ways.
Over 30 years ago, a great man named Fred Brooks wrote a book called The Mythical Man Month. This man was responsible for developing the IBM 360 operating system with a team of over 200 developers, support staff and managers. What he learned from this experience is documented in his book. His small book is the classic on the human elements of software engineering.
Most Agile methods in existence today owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Mr. Brooks. Most of the core Agile ideas can be traced directly to him. The “MMM” book has stood the test of time in a subject domain that changes daily. His book is a timeless classic that belongs in every Agile practitioner’s library. In my view Mr. Brooks is the “Abraham of Agile”, the originator and father of Agile. Anyone who claims to understand Agile must read and understand the Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks.
A quick Google of “Fred Brooks Agile” reveals that Dr. Jeff Sutherland’s blog entry of June 26 2006 honors Mr. Brooks. Other links in the Google list associate Brooks with Agile.
I believe it is important for us to explicitly honor the work of Mr. Brooks. It’s taken over 30 years for his ideas to really gain currency.
Let’s all admit that Fred Brooks is the Father of Agile, and that we are all, in some sense, his Agile descendants.