https://pantuso.com/tags/software/ Recent content in Software on Joe Pantuso Hugo en-us Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://pantuso.com/posts/why-agile-works/ Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://pantuso.com/posts/why-agile-works/ <p>The standard story about why Agile works is wrong. It goes something like: Agile is better because it&rsquo;s iterative, because it surfaces requirements earlier, because it gets working software in front of users faster. All true, but none of it is the reason Agile works.</p> <p>The reason Agile works is Gall&rsquo;s Law.</p> <p>Gall&rsquo;s Law, from John Gall&rsquo;s 1975 book <em>Systemantics</em>, states: <strong>A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.</strong> The inverse is equally true: a complex system designed from scratch never works, and cannot be patched into something that works. You have to start over with a working simple system.</p>