Some people quickly jump to conclusions about Agile Software Development without taking the time and effort to first learn about it.  Perhaps it's different from what they're used to seeing, or the terminology throws them off, or....  Whatever, I'd like to explain some common issues

== No Design ==

Some people think that, because agile methodologies don't produce thick design documents to guide the developers and because the developers start producing working code much earlier than in other methodologies, that they must skip the design stage and go direct to coding.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Design is so important, that an agile team doesn't just do it once, up front, but every day, all through the project.

Some articles on the subject:
 * [[http://www.developerdotstar.com/mag/articles/PDF/DevDotStar_Reeves_CodeAsDesign.pdf|Jack W. Reeves articles]] (PDF) "What Is Software Design?" "What Is Software Design: 13 Years Later" and "Letter to the Editor of C++ Journal."
 * [[http://martinfowler.com/articles/designDead.html|Martin Fowler's article]] "Is Design Dead?"
 * Recommended on the XP mailing list: "''Component Software'' by Clemens Szyperski ISBN:0201745720, [has] a very interesting exposition about what is and where the design of a software system resides."