Are we ready to be unleashed? A comparative analysis between agile software development and war fighting

Agile is for people, but are people prepared for agile? This paper compares the agile principles and our agile practices to an organization that may have 2,500 years experience practicing agility, the military. This paper suggests there are sufficient similarities between the nature of war fighting and the nature of software development to warrant a comparison between military war fighting philosophy and the principles of agile software development. While there are obvious limitations to this comparison, the comparison is enlightening because it both reveals potential deficiencies in our practice of agility and helps legitimizes agility as valid time tested approach to achieving success.