Iterative development – Agile is the late comer to this party

I’m doing some pre-reading for my Innovation and Entrepreneurship in IT subject as part of my Masters in Information Systems at the moment. Our lecturer pointed us to this guy’s blog. His blog is all about innovation.

A couple of posts stood out tonight.

1. “You are solving the wrong problem” (http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/the-wrong-problem/) recounts the story of Paul MacCready who was the first to successfully build a human powered aircraft. He collected a nice bounty for his trouble, which had stood for 18 years. The key to his success was his ability to design his aircraft so it could be iterated quickly and cheaply.
2. “Iterative design: Towards the perfect paper plane” (http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/iterative_design_isnt_design_by) tells of the author’s iterative design process for building the ultimate paper plane – a goal that he has spent a lifetime perfecting. He relates the problem of “design a better car”. What’s “better” mean? Faster? More fuel efficient? His conclusion is worth quoting here:

“As you design, you aren’t just moving towards a solution, you are learning about what problem your solution is trying to solve. So, don’t stop iterating your design. And more importantly, don’t stop iterating your problem.”