Cargo Cult Agile

The Counter, Carlsbad.

Everything went to hell with the Facebook product this morning, but with a little help it’s back up and running again. Not yet tested in IE, so it could still go to shit.

The phrase that’s been going through my head all morning has been “cargo cult.” Probably insulting, but you can pick pretty much any article about “cargo cult agile” off Google and it shows a picture of us.

I’ve been more and more dissatisfied with our process. How do I steer software development back on the right track, without having to be an asshole?

That was a fine lamburger. I should have probably gone swimming instead.

I wrote in a letter to a friend that year: “We supposedly learned ‘agile’ but we use it poorly. I refer to our method as ‘Cargo Cult Agile.’” The phrase stuck in my head for years.