6 Comments
User's avatar
Jim Highsmith's avatar

"Time-boxing is not about time, it's a mechanism for forcing hard trade-off decisions and producing tangible results." I wrote that in "Adaptive Software Development"--one of the early agile books, in 2000. Today I would generalize to say that constraints are as necessary to a design process as product vision--without constraints processes oscillate rather than iterate.

Expand full comment
Dean Peters's avatar

I like how you put that, Jim! Especially, "without constraints, processes oscillate rather than iterate."

If you don't mind, I'm going to 'borrow' or 'liberate' that excellent sentiment when teaching this topic.

Expand full comment
Jim Highsmith's avatar

I don’t mind a bit.

Expand full comment
Steve Johnson's avatar

Excellent post, as always. I particularly like the quotes, which I've added to my personal quotes database. My favorite:

To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.—Leonard Bernstein

Expand full comment
Dean Peters's avatar

Appreciate the kind words Steve. I've learned from some of the best (yeah, I'm lookin' atcha).

Expand full comment
Steve Johnson's avatar

I'm not sure it applies to this context, but my favorite (AI-related) quote these days is "Nothing seems hard to people who don't have to do it."

Expand full comment