I posted a few weeks ago gathering small tips from you regarding how you get and/or stay more Agile.

The goal is a list of short, pithy, sticky aphorisms to help both newbies get Agile and us stay that way. Think Agile Andy’s Almanack (or something).

I’ve thrown everything I got (a lot in person & email) together and categorized a bit. Please comment, add, delete, etc. As I said, I’m working on a presentation around this data and welcome your feedback.

Here goes:

Stick to Conventions

• Follow the local ground rules (indenting, naming, structure, etc.)
• Always take the next story (don’t let ‘fun’ or ‘hard’ get in the way of business priority)

Use the right tools

• Keep your hand on the manual (Keep browser tabs open for your language & API doc sites)
• Make mini actionable task lists for your story (Get inspired by GTD)
• Index cards are mini whiteboards
• Hardware, hardware, hardware (Big and/or dual monitors, 2 keyboards & 2 mice is better than 1 & 1)

Pair Programming Works

• Expect to Pair
• Pair appropriately
  • When you’re not sure how to implement a story, pair with someone more senior
  • When a task feels obvious, pair with someone more junior or new to the project
• Let the rookie type, give the wookie a toy (so he doesn’t)
• Rotate your pairs as often as practical
• 2 pairs are better than 1 on a project
• Always pair interview

Take a test drive

• Writers’ block? BEWS (Blank Editor Window Syndrome)? Write a test
• Find some untested code? Write a test.
• Find something you don’t understand? Write a test.
• Keep your tests as fast as is practical, or you’ll wait for CI to run them
• Write enough tests so that you can sleep at night

Code simply

• Do the simplest thing that could possibly work – no architecture astronauts
• Check-in multiple times before a story is done (try for every hour or so)
• Kill dead code, commented out code, or write tests to cover it
• Make it green, then make it clean
• Tackle code debt with extreme prejudice
• Leave the code cleaner than when you got there (think o2 canisters on Everest)

CI

• Every failing test is sacred
• Red builds are project cancer – fix first, figure out why, then blame (when appropriate)

Stay in sync

• Don’t stop talking – to your pair, your team or your customer
• Go to lunch together

Comment away…