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Whenever I read of sustainable development in product development, I just can’t help thinking the originators of agile principles simply heard that very trendy terminology around the turn of the millennium and mistakenly assumed it was related to software development.

At that time, I myself was studying international development, with a focus on environmental degradation and sustainability in so-called developing countries. The term sustainable development then referred to human, economic and social development that aims to meet the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Fast forward twenty-five years, and I work in an entirely different kind of development: primarily web development, organised around agile principles, and there is that terminology again: sustainable development, only now it has been shoehorned with a completely different meaning relating to the constant production of functionality over an extended period of time.

I suppose we could say it is vaguely related to the original definition, in so much as organisations need to address current needs without burning out their teams in the long term. So, yes, this kind of development is made sustainable in the long run by working in short cycles to maintain a regular pace and a motivated team.

Great, but that’s not at all what sustainable development in its original context was referring to, as first defined in the late 1980s. Personally, I’m a great proponent of agile principles in the workplace, and have long advocated this way of working over traditional, inflexible approaches. Given the acute under-resourcing of the organisation I work for it is really the only viable approach to delivering results.

Still, it does make make me chuckle whenever I come across terminology redeployed from a completely different context. But no matter. It is nice to be reminded of my roots, and my first love.