Agile Just Feels Natural

Have done agile development for most of my career, I find it interesting when I first introduce the concepts to new developers. We're just starting to introduce it to people in my department, and we have got started with reading through the usual standard books by Ambler, Fowler, Beck, et al and I've start acting as the Agile PM on some key software projects.

What I find interesting is when I introduce it to developers, the universal reaction seems to be the following:

1. What a breath of fresh air - this is how we should have doing software all along.
2. I've already been using these techniques but didn't have a methodology to explain it and wasn't rewarded for it. I find that developers who have been raised in the classical SDLC have secretly rebelled against it and agile methodologies simply validate the rebellion.
3. The biggest flaw as most software developers experience with the traditional waterfall model (or worse the traditional death march just get it done by a fixed deadline approach) is that they now have some confidence in their work and ability to deliver against timelines.
4. When I find developers revert back to their old bad habits, they almost always run back into trouble and then slap themselves in the head of going back to hiding their risks, not being iterative and letting projects slip into death marches.

See my next post on why Agile is Great for Customers...