Great Quotes For The Agile Project Wall

At a recent internal Capgemini tradeshow, we had the pleasure of using some great quotes that really benefit working the way I like the best: Small agile teams where we can show and tell — make working software and prototypes very fast in close collaboration with clients.

Mads and I decided to add a few quotes of our own on the list — basically to provoke a bit internally. One of the provocations were to call us “Ruby on Rails pioneers”. The reason for that is actually that a Danish newspaper last year called us that when describing this way of working.

”Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it”

– Alan Perlis
(American computer scientist, inventor of ALGOL)

”Expansion means complexity and complexity decay”

– C. Northcote Parkinson
(British historian and author)

”Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before”

– Franz Kafka

”Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability”

– Edsger Dijkstra
(Dutch mathematician, inventor of Shortest Path First Algorithm)

” UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity”

– Dennis Ritchie
(Inventor of C and and Unix core developer)

“Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough”

– Charles Dudley Warner
(American essayist and novelist)

“The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity”

– Bill Gates
(Inventor of DOS and Windows)

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”

– Leonardo da Vinci

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated”

– Confucius

Project success is not product success

– Jeff Patton, Agile Alliance

”Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it”

– Alan Perlis
(American computer scientist, inventor of ALGOL)

“At a certain point, waterfall project development models force us to stop becoming smarter”

– Jesper Rønn-Jensen
(Capgemini Ruby on Rails pioneer)

“Enterprise? – A colossal spaceship from the 80’s flown by people with bad taste: Highly advanced, but purely fictional”

– Mads Buus Westmark
(Capgemini Ruby on Rails pioneer)

“Agile consultants: pricey, but not enterpricey”

– Mads Buus Westmark
(Capgemini Ruby on Rails pioneer)

More info:

Feel free to add any quote you think should be added to this list.

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11 Responses to “Great Quotes For The Agile Project Wall”

  1. Jesper Rønn-Jensen Says:

    Sources for the quotes:
    Alan Perlis:
    http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/alan_perlis.html

    C. Northcote Parkinson:
    http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/c_northcote_parkinson.html

    Franz Kafka:
    http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/franzkafka390020.html

    Edsger Dijkstra:
    http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/edsger_dijkstra.html

    Dennis Richie:
    http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/dennisritc172475.html

    Charles Dudley Warner:
    http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/charlesdud133711.html

    Bill Gates:
    June 7, 2007, Harvard Commencement
    (via Presentation Zen)

    Leonardo da Vinci:
    http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/l/leonardoda107812.html

    Confucius:
    http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/confucius104563.html

    Jeff Patton:
    Incremental releases (14 MB pdf file), page 54:
    http://www.agileproductdesign.com/downloads/patton_incremental_releases_handouts.pdf

  2. Quotes for Agility (software development) | Just Talk About Web Says:

    […] ‘Quotes for Agility’; var dzone_style = ‘1’; Mads B. Westmark and Jesper Rønn-Jensen have some quotes for the agile project wall. The quote below is what Jesper likes […]

  3. Franco Martinig Says:

    Thanks for your nice quotes. You could add the following quote:
    “No plan survives contact with the enemy” attributed to Helmuth von Moltke that I found in the book “Managing Iterative Software Development Projects” from K. Bittner and I. Spence
    “Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups” Wethern’s Law of Suspended Judgement that I found in the book “Continuous Integration” from Paul Duvall

  4. Tobias Says:

    I’ve always liked this one from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (author of The Little Prince among other things):

    “It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

  5. Tasarim Says:

    It should add yes “Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups” Wethern’s Law of Suspended Judgement that I found in the book “Continuous Integration” from Paul Duvall thanks…

  6. Grace Says:

    One of the quotes I hear all the time from work that makes total sense when attacking a problem or project is ” what is the lowest hanging fruit” My boss says it all the time, and it makes sense…

  7. Tom Gurney Says:

    Interesting quotes, particularly Da Vinci’s. Simplicity certainly is sophisticated :-)

  8. רפידות גובה Says:

    It should add yes “Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups” Wethern’s Law of Suspended Judgement that I found in the book “Continuous Integration” from Paul Duvall thanks…

  9. Link Degisimi Says:

    Interesting quotes, particularly Da Vinci’s. Simplicity certainly is sophisticated :-)

  10. haberler Says:

    […] ‘Quotes for Agility’; var dzone_style = ‘1′; Mads B. Westmark and Jesper Rønn-Jensen have some quotes for the agile project wall. The quote below is what Jesper likes […]