Perhaps the challenge that we really have is that most software developers build tools only for their own needs. It might be the case that all we need is some teams building tools thinking about the developers who would be using it – including how easy it would be for them to learn and use all the features.

Vineet Sinha
Founder, Architexa (http://www.architexa.com)

I wish you all the best with this project – it sounds like you have the right spirit.

Cheers
Mark Levison
Agile Pain Relief Consulting

For instance, why don’t people get carried away with detail on a 4×6 card? They just run out of room. So creating a software system where you can type endlessly on the card perhaps invites the type of behaviour you’re referring to. People will start go down the tool path further than they would if the tool had the restrictions of the white board. It’s another characteristic of the white board approach we can add to our list: “The white board restricts the amounts of content.”

With that thought in mind, we can probably think of many other ways that the white board is restrictive, and where those restrictions are good things that help the Agile process stay on track. So the software should perhaps be equally restrictive if it is to be successful. This highlights the problem we’re focused on at Exia… why don’t Agile and Microsoft Team Sytem get along? Because Team System has too many fields and places so few restrictions on what you can do. It’s an odd paradox… the paradox of choice.

It’s the same reason we sometimes long for the days when there was just Crest and Colgate, and you picked one or the other and got the heck out of the supermarket a lot faster! Nowadays the Agile team wants the toothpaste that does the least damage to the environment and is the most healthy, while the development team wants the one that brightens your teeth, freshens your breath, disinfects your gums, combats gingevitis, and gets the girl, all at the same time! Amazingly they sell that exact thing.

The difference in the problem space is this: software is expensive and toothpaste is cheap. If toothpaste cost the same as software and we had to make a collective decision we’d be stuck in the aisle for a week!