Thinking That Agile Means “No Documentation” and “Cowboy Coding”

Education is critical in helping the organization understand what agile really means. It is a set of project management and engineering practices for developing software. This iterative and incremental approach adheres to the Agile Manifesto and follows the manifesto’s guiding principles. Although we place a greater emphasis on working code over comprehensive documentation (the former the customer will buy, the latter the customer usually is not as interested in), this doesn’t mean that documentation goes away. It is simply reassessed according to the value it provides.

As we have discussed throughout the book, it is worth reiterating how important it is to discuss the types of documents that the customer needs and wants to pay for, as well as the types of documents that add value to the product development process and support the product after it has been deployed (though the customer probably wouldn’t pay for these documents even if the customer knew they existed). On the other hand, if your environment is one of heavy contracts and big analysis/design up front to substantiate those contracts, you may have a difficult time convincing your customers that a ton of documents is not what they really need.