My Notes on Why Agile Works..

After watching Martin Fowler's talk in France I decided to condense the important points from the talk in my own word so that they are easy to remember:

1. we have moved from predictive planning (waterfall) to adaptive planning - because most requirements are NOT static, therefore massive amounts of up-front analysis and planning are doomed to failure (developers have known this for years when having to look at unrealistic project plans)
2. the more traditional fixed type of processes can and often do stifle people and stop them working effectively
3. there has been a shift from people following processes to the process following and adapting to the people - it's now a people-driven process
4. we are moving to evolutionary design
5. it's common that organisations decide to follow agile methods to manage the project but the design of the software is not designed for change - it has been noticed that this is particularly a problem with followers of SCRUM
6. feedback loops are central to Agile 
7. Agile methods are much more effective when combined with XP practices such as pair programming, TDD, continuous integration etc.  This approach combines a flexible agile project management methodology with software that has been designed for change - loose coupling of components for example
8. it's very important when starting and Agile approach to first get the quality of the software under control.  Implement unit tests linked to the build and get quick feedback in case of regression test failures.