catchphrases that help us be more agile

Catchphrases that help us be more Agile

A community authored lightning talk created at the XP2013 conference in Vienna

“Vodka martini… shaken not stirred.”“Did I do that…?”

“Dyno-mite!”

What is a catchphrase? It’s a calling card. An oft repeated statement that tells the world who you are and why you are here. The quintessentially cool spy. The ultimate clumsy nerd. The good times guy…

We have catchphrases in Agile too. We use them every day to capture our culture and values, the way we want to build software….

This slide deck started nearly empty, with just the first generic examples and a few of my favorites that I could think of. The rest were suggested by audience members during the lightning talk.

Attributions are given where attributions are known (or thought to be known).

The talk was less than 10 minutes and captured several amazing nuggets of wisdom. Enjoy!

DRY – Don’t Repeat Yourself

Pragmatic Programmer

The only way to go fast is to go well.

Bob Martin

No broken windows, no boiled frogs.

Pragmatic Programmers

Code is not done ‘till all the tests run!

Pragmatic Programmers

We don’t ship shit.

Bob Martin

Embrace change

Kent Beck

YAGNI – You ain’t gonna need it

Do what you need to do to be successful.

Michael Keeling(Ok so this is a personal catchphrase )

Plans are nothing, planning is everything.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Slow down to get fast.

Leave it in a better state.

If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll

never get it done.

Bruce Lee

It’s not done until somebody is using it.

It’s your fault we have a blame oriented culture.

Tell me how you measure me and I’ll tell you how I behave.

Eli Goldratt

There is no coulda shouldawoulda, because if we could have

we would have.

(The only thing that could have happened did.)

It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.

Fail fast.

Let go and let the team.

Failing without learning is the failing.

Build trust by shipping stuff.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

Mahatma Gandhi

If it’s painful do it more often.

Do or do not there is no try.

Yoda

A month at the keyboard can save an hour in the library.