TITLE: Elrond, Agile Development Sage
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: September 27, 2016  2:57 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Call me a crazy extreme programmer, but when I came across 
the Tolkien passage quoted in my previous post on
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2016-09.html#e2016-09-26T14_54_17.htm">
   commitment and ignorance</A>
again recently after many years, my first thought was that
Elrond sounded like a wise old agile developer:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
Look not too far ahead!
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

You aren't gonna need it, indeed.

This first thought cast Gimli in the role of a Big Design
Up Front developer. Unfortunately, that analogy sells his
contribution to the conversation short.  Just as Gimli's
deep commitment to the mission is balanced by Elrond's
awareness, so, too, is Gimli's perspective applied to
software balanced by Elrond's YAGNI.  Perhaps then Gimli
plays the role of Metaphor in this fantasy: the impulse
that drives the team forward to the ultimate goal.

Just another one of those agile moments I have every now
and then.  I wonder if they will start happening with
more frequency, and less reality, as I get older.  They
are a little like senior moments, only focused on
programming.
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