The Psychology of Agile Software Development

I am interested in the philosophies that support the principles of agile software development and their psychosocial impact on individuals and teams. My thinking on this topic grows out of two assumptions:

Humans will never be removed from the process of developing software
Technological progress will continue

Humans must be continually recognized as the cornerstone of software development. My hope is that the ideas presented here will contribute to the ongoing conversation of how individuals and teams grow software.

Emerging Papers:

Relevant quotes:

The major problems of our work are not so much technological as sociological in nature. --Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, 2nd ed., p. 4, Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister
It's never the size of the step that a person takes that counts, but its direction. --Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends, Michael White & David Epston
The task facing developers is this: they are working on a problem that they don't fully understand, one that lives in emotions, wishes, and thoughts and that changes as they proceed. --Agile Software Development, Alistair Cockburn
Software development is a messy problem. The only way to solve it is to interact with each other, and to let our understanding and path forward emerge. --Growing Software: Debunking the Myth of Prediction and Control, p. 137, Roy Miller
One can't really understand the Agile movement without understanding the originators' views on working relationships and their deeply held cultural values. --Agile Software Development Ecosystems, p. xxix, Jim Highsmith

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