TITLE: Agile Moments: Conspicuous Progress and Partial Value
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: July 03, 2014  2:13 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Dorian Taylor, in
<A HREF="http://doriantaylor.com/toward-a-theory-of-design-as-computation">
   Toward a Theory of Design as Computation</A>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 You can scarcely compress the time it takes to do good design.
 The best you can do is arrange the process so that progress is
 conspicuous and the partially-completed result has its own
 intrinsic value.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Taylor's piece is about an idea much bigger than simply software
methodology, but this passage leapt off the page at me.  It seems
to embody two of the highest goals of the various agile approaches
to making software: progress that is conspicuous and partial
results that have intrinsic value to the user.

If you like ambition attempts to create a philosophy of design,
check out the whole essay.  Taylor connects several disparate
sources:
<UL>
<LI> Edwin Hutchins and <EM>Cognition in the Wild</EM>, </LI>
<LI> Donald Norman and <EM>Things That Make Us Smart</EM>, and </LI>
<LI> Douglas Hofstadter and <EM>G&ouml;del, Escher, Bach</EM> </LI>
</UL>
with the philosophy of Christopher Alexander, in particular
<EM>Notes on the Synthesis of Form</EM> and <EM>The Nature of
Order</EM>.  Ambitious it is.
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