Hans Samios' Personal Lean-Agile Knowledge Base

“No matter what, the cost of addressing technical debt increases with time.” – Chris Sterling

“We're more likely to get it 'right' the third time.” – Chris Sterling

“Software and cathedrals are much the same – first we build them, then we pray.” – Sam Redwine 1988

“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” – Niels Bohr, Danish Physicist (1885 – 1962)

“No is easier to do. Yes is easier to say.” – Unknown. Quoted at 37 Signals.

“Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves.” – Alan Kay

“There is nothing so useless as doing more efficiently what should not be done at all.” – Peter Drucker.

“… manage for the normal and treat the exceptions as exceptional.” – W Edwards Demming.

“In the business world, the rear-view mirror is always clearer than the windshield.” – Warren Buffett

“It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.” – Winston Churchill

“… as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.” – Donald Rumsfeld on the unknowns we don't know.

“Doing it better is not hard, it's easier, so do it better. Increase in code skill means code is better, so your job is easier.” – Ron Jeffries @ Agile 2010

“Many people outsource to a country that is further away than the space station – does this make sense?” – Chet Hendrickson @ Agile 2010

“The difference between a methodologist and a terrorist is that you can reason with a terrorist” – Dave West @ Agile 2010

“Calling a group of people a 'team' does not make it so.” – Esther Derby @ Agile 2010

“Law of crappy systems - if you have a crappy system even brilliant people will never be more that mediocre.” – Esther Derby @ Agile 2010

“Attempts to force non-deterministic systems to operate at greater than 80% efficiency will cause short bursts of stabilization followed by extreme periods of destructive and unpredictable variations from that goal.” – W. Edwards Deming.

“The problem with single point estimate is that it says there is 100% chance that this will happen. It's a target masquerading as an estimate.” – Arin Sime @ Agile 2010

“Only certification drowned in waterfalls.” – Dave Thomas Agile 2010 Conference Keynote speech, Tuesday 10th August 2010

“If you can't do it on a card, then you will only do it worse in a tool.” – Dave Thomas Agile 2010 Conference Keynote speech, Tuesday 10th August 2010

“Don't show other people the back of your computer! Its rude …” – Dave Thomas Agile 2010 Conference Keynote speech, Tuesday 10th August 2010

“Agile is FrAgile as it depends on sustainable leadership and discipline.” – Unknown

“'Technical success' is a euphemism for failure.” – Mary Poppendieck on tying goals of a team to goals of a business @ Agile 2010

“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.” Dwight D. Eisenhower.

“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” – Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke.

“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everyone has decided not to see.” – Ayn Rand.

“People don't want a quarter inch drill. They want a quarter inch hole”. – Theordore Levitt.

“We know this is a useful number because there is a decimal point in it.” – Dave Nicolette

“Managers who don’t know how to measure what they want settle for wanting what they can measure” – Russel Ackoff

“Tell me how you will measure me and I will tell you how I behave.” – Eli Goldratt (1990)

“Poor management can increase software cost more rapidly than any other factor.” – Barry Boehm, Software Engineering Economics, 1981

“Self-organization does not mean that workers instead of managers engineer an organization design. It does not mean letting people do whatever they want to do. It means management commits to guiding the evolution of behaviors that emerge from the interactions of independent agents instead of specifying in advance what effective behavior is.” – Philip Anderson, The Biology of Business

“Self-organizing is about the team determining how they will respond to their environment (and managers / leaders can influence that environment.” – Mike Cohn

“What is the simplest thing that could possibly work?” – Kent Beck on a good design

“Direction set in advance of experience has an especially short half life.” – Kent Beck

“I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter.” – Blaise Pascal 1657

“I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” – Thomas Edison on experimentation.

“Change your organization, or change your organization” – Martin Fowler

“… we all safely interpret dangerous things in ways that don’t require us to change our lives.” — Orson Scott Card

“When you want your boat to go fast it is easier to cut anchors than to add horsepower.” – Luke Hohmann

“They must understand, within the context of their specific product, the difference between excellence and perfection. No company can afford a perfect product, but building a product that delivers customer value and maintains technical integrity is essential to commercial success.” – Jim Highsmith from Agile Project Management

“Be quick, but don't hurry.” – John Wooden

“Life, like basketball, must be played fast – but never out of control.” – John Wooden

“The agile triangle: value (releasable product), quality (reliable, adaptable) product, & constraints (cost, schedule, scope)” – Jim Highsmith

“Bad news does not get better with age” – Joe Little from his “agile principles”

“I know it when I see it.” – Judge Potter Stewart

“Without data, all managers can do is 'Motivate', and cross their fingers. When 'Motivation' fails, “Mandation” often follows. With little effect.” – Uncle Bob Martin (1995)

“If a test is worth writing, it’s worth automating, and it must always pass in the future … When the CI breaks, the team should stop the line and get it green.” – Lisa Crispin

“We are risk adverse when we might gain.” – Piattelli-Palmarini

“If you never erase the whiteboards, you might as well write on walls.” – Ron Jeffries