Mike Benner

One of the concepts in Agile Development is use automation tools.  These tools can run through a wide range of options, but typically you would have automated server builds, testing suites, deployment tools, etc.  These tools should be stable and reliable.  In the Rails world things change quickly and updates are pushed out a much faster intervals than other non open source environments.  This can cause your tools to become out of date and less than reliable rather quickly.

When this happens, you may find yourself, hacking together work arounds or just plain doing it manually because of your work load.  While this may seem like a good idea in the short term, the long term affects can become paralyzing and complete efficiency killers.  When you find this happening to you and your team, stop sawing.  Sawing with a dull blade will get you nowhere.  Not only that, but it can lead to bad habits.

Team members can become apathetic about the problems, can start to lose pride in their work and environment or worst yet, stop doing that extra step that makes them better because it "isn't worth the effort/time".  Visibility drops and the Agile process can start to break down.  If you find this happening, take the time to fix the problems.  Too busy sawing?  Work a second shift, come in on a Saturday, rally the team to do nothing but sharpen the tools.  A good team can get the process back on track rather quickly and the overall results will be seen almost immediately.