Agility and Wiki 
Everyone working in software development should have read the
principles of the
agile manifesto. It provides some insight why quite a few software projects where simply going
boink. This was a hook for me to think about why
wikis are so popular among software developers now. The wiki cannot help with any of the 'mindset' parts of the manifesto. I just took out a few of the principles, but lets take a look them:
Welcome changing requirements, even late in
development. Agile processes harness change for
the customer's competitive advantage.
In a wiki its so simple to make changes. Using it for requirements or documentation its a matter of a click to quickly modify ideas or help texts or even code documentation.
Business people and developers must work
together daily throughout the project.
A web interface, simple to use, even for business people. Categorizing the contents even makes it simple for the business people to blank out hard core software development stuff. You can even find out who's responsible. The transparency is an important point, see next:
Build projects around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they need,
and trust them to get the job done.
Focus on trust here. The same principle the
wiki idea is build upon. A collaborative environment that allows the freedom that makes the individual feel as an important part. That is also necessary for people to be motivated. If I feel bandaged I loose interest quickly.
Simplicity -- the art of maximizing the amount
of work not done -- is essential.
Another idea behind
wiki. With the most simple interface you are able to produce quality documentation. Integrating such an interface with the tools, a developer already uses you minimize the context switch. An example can be seen here:
eXPTask. Simplicity was also a design aspect of
SnipSnap. We wanted to lower the usage barrier as much as possible. Taking a look at the interface today we will have to re-design the interface to make it simple again...
The best architectures, requirements, and designs
emerge from self-organizing teams.
That is the best of all. "Self-organizing" teams. Within a
wiki space every member of a team can start out with his own ideas and his own structure. But in contrast to most requirements tools and workgroup systems, you can change this structure, as
Ward Cunningham states:
"Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.".
