Mark Schraad wrote:
> Thanks William. I am a BayChi member (though I do not live there) and will
request that podcast. I guess one of the issues clouding my vision is that most
of our larger project utilize off shore dev teams, or an outside vendors. The
smaller projects involve the dev team that is 20-30 foot away... and that works
quite well.
>

You've definitely put your finger on a major issue.

As a designer, you're well aware how much seemly tiny factors affect
human behavior. Ease of communication changes substantially from 5 feet
to 30, and again substantially at 100. Bumping that to the
50,000,000-foot flight to Bangalore is bound to have a major effect.

I used to think that doing agile methods with an offshore team was
impossible. Having helped shepherd one offshore project onto an agile
path, I now merely think it's much, much harder and a fair bit less
effective than getting everybody in the same room.

Whether the increased pain and reduced quality are overmatched by other
factors is a local decision, of course. And if offshoring or oursourcing
has to be involved, I think an agile approach is much better than a
waterfall. But I'd hate for people to judge agile methods solely by an
outsourced project; it'd be like judging a runner on his performance
knee-deep in a swamp.

William