This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Greg Vaughn. Original Post: Generalist vs. Specialist Feed Title: Potential Differences Feed URL: http://gigavolt.net/blog/development/index.rss Feed Description: Greg Vaughn on Agile methodologies, Java, OS X, whatever piques my interest! Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Greg Vaughn Latest Posts From Potential Differences

I’m playing some blog catchup right now, but there’s another entry of Brian Marrick’s I want to comment on: Technology-facing Product Critiques . In it he explores the need for specialists even in an Agile project. I’m not certain I can completely agree.

I submit myself as a counter-example to his argument. I’m a developer, and Agile-minded. I’m interested in security, UI design, and even testing (why I started reading his blog in the first place :-) I guess that makes me a jack of all trades and a master of none. While I may not feel qualified to be the sole person in charge of security, UI design or testing on a project, I do think that with a group of developers that are as much of a generalist as I am, we could collectively get the job done.

I suppose pragmatically there’s the question of how many projects have a group of generalists this broad. Maybe I’m just a singular oddity. I’ve been accused of that before.