Good Washing Machine

Leisa Reichelt gave a talk at Dconstruct07 entitled Waterfall Bad, Washing Machine Good, Leisa has also put up the slides of her presentation. As of yet none of the podcasts from the talks seem to have appeared yet. Leisa also writes about her presentation on her blog.

Doh! just realised that because the slides were put on Slideshare I can embed them here, also these are from an earlier presentation. They do give a flavor of the Dconstruct presentation.


I could kind of relax a little during this talk, coming from a developer camp and having had experience of some agile methodologies, I don't need to be sold on it. Admittedly my workplace uses it only on some projects but I definitely prefer working this way. It was interesting to see a designer angle on it though and I quite agree that you do not have to get too anally retentive about the exact execution of your agile methodology (it is amazing how some people do, you can sit down in a stand-up meeting if you have a bad-back it still works, the only reason you are standing is to ensure that people remember that the meeting is supposed to be brief and to the point). I guess that the kind of people who get too anal about the execution of the methodology are the same ones that point out grammatical errors in spoken language (why do you think they invented the word colloquial grrrrr....).

Now I have to admit that I like Leisa's slides very much, since returning to work I have started organizing my brief notes and reminders on little colored post-its rather than on the back of scrap paper (bad for the environment but rather more aesthetically pleasing) perhaps there is a tiny piece of me not bedded in code and formula.

Of course life is more like a washing machine, anyone who knows the best answers at the right stages of the usual waterfall is either a genius or imbued with too little imagination and reflection.