If you read our white paper “Agile Is No Silver Bullet: Building Great Software Takes Much More”, you know that unscrupulous developers often 
characterize Agile development as a silver bullet solution for software projects.
Sure, Agile is a really good development philosophy—as far as we know, it’s the best one—but it’s no silver bullet. In fact, when it comes to software projects, there’s no such thing.
On the bright side, silver bullets do work (as advertised) on werewolves, so you still have a chance of surviving a werewolf apocalypse. But what about your software project?
If you want your software project to be a success, you’ll need to be vigilant. Here are some warning signs that your development team might be infiltrated by werewolves:
- Productivity drops off when there’s a full moon and several members of the team suddenly disappear. Remaining team members pick their teeth a lot. Coincidence? Maybe. Did you thoroughly check the firm’s references?
- There are unexplained scratch marks on the project board. Could be werewolves—or a sign of frustration from an inexperienced Agile development team. Again, did you check references?
- Team members all have the same ringtone: a wolf howl. Aah-ooooooooh! Not good…
- The software doesn’t work but the loading screen has a well-rendered image of a full moon, with the caption “You’re next”. This could indicate werewolves but it could also be a ruse to divert your attention from the poor software. Investigate.
- Your designated Product Owner complains to you about all the whining, barking, and growling that she hears in team meetings.
Whether you find werewolves on your team, or just developers with bad people skills, tread lightly. Either way, your software is in trouble.
Choose a team of experienced, hardworking professionals to develop your software and save your silver bullets—you’re going to need them. The werewolves are coming…