

Flipping Assumptions with 'Programmer Anarchy' - michaelfeathers
http://michaelfeathers.typepad.com/michael_feathers_blog/2013/07/flipping-assumptions-with-programmer-anarchy.html

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Spearchucker
Struggling to understand what this post it trying to communicate. I don't use
automated tests, but I also can't cobble a workable system together with
discrete services that don't exceed 100 lines of code.

Most importantly, I see software as a business enabler, but in _response_ to a
business problem, not as an intrinsic business opportunity.

These points strike me as being unrelated, and anti-process. If that's really
the point then I have to assume that it targets specific project types (web,
for example, because these I can't see these things working with native
clients or app servers).

~~~
jacques_chester
I think the short version of the hypothesis is that teams composed of
brilliant individuals working on hyper-focused projects under conditions of
high motivation perform exceedingly well without using any identifiable
process.

Not discussed is how this applies to the rest of us regular schmoes working on
middle-of-the-road projects with ordinary levels of emotional arousal.

One of my professors actually had "anarchy" as one of the software development
methodologies. No kidding, it was there on the slide along with stuff like
CMMI, Lean, Agile and a few others. He wasn't using it as a rhetorical foil,
he meant anarchy in the sense of "no central governor".

He'd consulted for dozens of companies over several decades. He said that most
of them practice some form of anarchy. And he'd seen it work ... _once_. It
was a team composed of brilliant individuals, working on a hyper-focused
project, under conditions of high motivation.

------
cllns
Barun Singh gave a great talk about a similar workflow at Boston Ruby in
December. I highly recommend it.

Talk:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4whL7Ll7ww](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4whL7Ll7ww)

Slides: [https://speakerdeck.com/barunio/atomic-
commits](https://speakerdeck.com/barunio/atomic-commits)

Well-written notes:
[http://barunsingh.com/2012/12/13/anarchy_in_software.html](http://barunsingh.com/2012/12/13/anarchy_in_software.html)

