And yes, finally I made it home this morning. After wasting 5 days in Canada, I finally reached home this morning. BTW if you are wondering what I was doing in Canada after my bad experience last time, I was visiting Toronto to participate in Agile 2008 conf. The conference got over on Friday and then I wanted to get back home as soon as possible.

Due to unavailability of seats, I was booked on Sunday flight. Which got cancelled due to bad weather in New York. Then I was put on the Monday flight. Which again got cancelled and they put me on the Tuesday flight. Delta Airline apparently has a policy that if the flight is cancelled due to weather problem, then they can treat the passengers like crap. No accommodation, no expenses, no change of flights, etc. Basically “you are on your own”. It turns out the best option is to cancel your tickets and run to another airline. 

Big thanks to Deborah Hartmann for hosting me at her place and for taking care of me when I was down with a fever and cold. Deb, you rock!

Of late, most of my talks have been challenging the dogmatism that exists in the Agile community. I hate the whole “Our way or Highway (no-way)” attitude. Do it by the book or you are not Agile. Do X, Y & Z else you are not Agile.

Who’d believe with the way things are here
We’d be going everywhere telling people how to live?
Who’d believe we’d spend more
Shippin’ products with broken builds
Than to educate our minds?
Sorry but that’s what most do

I can’t help but think,
Someone’s foresaken you and me

By far what I see Agile today is, its “Process OVER People”. I could be completely wrong, but this is what I see happening in a lot (not every single) company. Because I think this way, some folks think I’m “Post Agile”. If challenging what some people are trying to push in the community is becoming “Post that community”. Then I guess I’m “Post Dogmatism”, I’m “Post Silverbulletism”.

I have always been of the opinion that Agile is just a means and not an end in itself. So is technology and so are companies and software they build.

If there is a new way, I’ll be first in line.