Is IBM changing ?

I never thought I'd see a post from IBM/Rational that stated that "more process" is not always a good thing. Especially since they have been pushing Rational Unified Process so strong.

But, here it is:
"Anti-patterns: Precise plans/estimates, track against static plan management style. More process is better. Always use the same degree of process throughout the life-cycle."

I especially like the part: "More process is better." (note that this is under anti-patterns! :)

The idea of adapting (as stated in the article linked) is nothing new of course, it had been advocated by many people and documented in a little known site located at www.agilemanifesto.org.

Much of what is stated in IBM's paper is pretty much common sense (which begs the question: why did it take them so long to get there...), but it is a good sign that the big blue is starting to see the light.

Microsoft a close second in the Agile race?

Microsoft also jumped on the Scrum/Agile bandwagon. Through David Treadwell MS stated: "

"Treadwell said many teams within Microsoft rely on Scrum as a way to turn out quality software on time and in tune with user requirements.

Yet, "one thing we find is that you can't excessively mandate software development processes on a broad scale," Treadwell said."

Wow. I don't know if the rest of the MS-organization really understands what that means, but the fact that David states it like that really gives me hope that the wisdom will start flowing to other companies in the industry.

One thing is sure, at least now I can even quote MS at work in defense of self-organized teams that define their own process with a view to achieve the best performance possible!

Here's to hoping.