Sorry for top posting, but this was long. But wow, you make it sound like non if this could have been done unless someone 'invented' Agile. Shorten iterations and take customer input, what a concept. Another example of PMS Programming
Stephanie J Brown (9/18/2009)
Nice article on the impact Agile can have on DBA's, David.Full disclosure: Agile Scrum Master here!
Agile can work well in a lot of situations, but you do need to get buy-in from the people involved. I'm 'mastering' several Agile projects (since January 2009), and we're seeing a lot of benefits from the process.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet, either in the article or the responses, is that Agile was in part designed to expose obstacles posed by the corporate culture. This allows you to remove the obstacles - assuming you have some support from upper management. If you don't have a fairly powerful Agile Champion (buzzword alert!) in the upper echelons, it will be difficult to succeed with Agile methodologies.
I'm fortunate that our CTO is both our Agile Champion, and a VERY effective communicator at the upper levels. I have a regional VP on one of my Agile projects - he's the Product Owner (for those steeped in the Agile buzzwords, again). Great to work with, can make fast decisions about what he needs from us. We're on track to complete a project in two months - very tight time schedule. We're using 2-week long Sprints.
Another of my projects has an external client in the Scrum - another Product Owner, very quick to make decisions or get us information that we need. We couldn't succeed without her, because she know what she wants - not us! We need her input, and her review of use cases, web screens, data gathering, and so on. She discusses code issues and database structure questions directly with the DBAs and Developers, and I occasionally do a little translating from geek-speak to client-speak. The team is highly productive, communicates well, and the client is VERY happy with the most recent demo of the software.
So YES, Agile can work. It takes some work, some practice, some commitment, and the ability to be flexible. But I LOVE what it's doing for my projects - if they don't come in "on time" (meaning we don't meet that unrealistic deadline that someone pulled out of a hat), EVERYONE on the project know why, and understands how it occurred. I'm a convert, ever since the first time one of my internal clients said "Oh, it's US that are the obstacle! We'll have to get better at this." Music to my ears... :w00t: