What I particularly wanted to highlight, though, is the unconscious motivation toward the idea of the ‘hero developer’; the lone hacker who, through sheer force of will and talent, fixes the whole faulty, foundering development project in a single, blinding flash of brilliance. Like the myth of the heroic, visionary artist operating at the margins of the accepted art world, chiefly this is a *myth*.

Good functional teams make failing software projects better (or better yet, stop them from ‘teh fail’ in the first place).

The breathtakingly stupid stuff about quality not mattering though is really quite something else. I urge everyone to read Uncle Bob’s article if you haven’t already.

Even if you take in the famous “Joel Test” you can see anti-agile aspects. The need for a spec and the need for testers (who, as revealed in various articles, are V-model testers) are giveaways. A reference to the daily build (instead of continual builds) is another hint. Finally, the quiet workspace is a slam at the idea of co-location (which is very different to open plan “developer pits”).

He’s a smart guy, what he does works for him, and that’s the way he likes it. And he’s never really tried Agile, so he doesn’t get it. Agile is neither necessary or sufficient for writing software – it’s just a damn good idea, the way a nail gun is neither necessary or sufficient for building a house.