Is being Pragmatic agile? [closed]

Question

I just re-read The Pragmatic Programmer (my third time reading it...I get something new every time, too). It seems like the tips that they mention are related to many of the various Agile methodologies. Is Pragmatic Programming just another form of Agile Development?

Answer 1

Much of what has been coined "Agile Development" are practices that have been used for years and you will find a lot of these ideas in "The Pragmatic Programmer" and "Code Complete", etc.. To some degree agile is a nice marketing spin that has been coined, but I do believe it has done us a lot of good to get some of these practices and ideeas into the mainstream.

Answer 2

Without wishing to be flippant: does it matter?

When it comes down to it, these are labels which people use in different ways, meaning a whole variety of different things. The practices themselves are much more important than the labels you ascribe to them.

But yes, fundamentally it shouldn't be surprising that many of the practices appear in both places.

Answer 3

The authors both were both part of the small group that started the whole agile movement (or at least gave it a name), so I would say yes.

Answer 4

Yes, the pragprog way is being agile. Many elements of the agile manifesto can be found in the pragmatic programmer book. Great examples of this include "there are no final decisions" and "code that glows in the dark".

Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas (Ruby Dave) signed the agile manifesto.

The main point I'd like to make is that few really experienced agile people put much stock in how "agile" anything is. Kent Beck was interviewed just a few weeks ago on the FLOSS podcast ( http://twit.tv/floss87 ) and it's clear from what he said and his tone of voice that the pioneer of extreme programming doesn't believe that the word "agile" carries much meaning these days in the industry.

I have done lots of extreme programming and have find that everybody says they're "agile" - even people who didn't know what it meant five minutes ago. IMHO the term has become meaningless. It's a lot more clear cut whether a project follows the scrum rules or the extreme programming rules... I'd say pick a specific style because the "agile" umbrella term seems to mean less and less as time goes on.