[parasubvert]

"And now imagine Healthcare.gov was Agile and its API would change every month completely."

This is not required by any Agile method that I have experienced. You can create a stable API and stick with it forever. If you know what you want/need.

"Every time you interact with third parties you have to provide stable interfaces."

Yes. Case in point, the Cloud Foundry APIs at http://apidocs.cloudfoundry.org are backwards compatible and stable behind a dozen or more agile projects. Changes are made continually on the codebase, but the API remains stable, so that interoperability is not broken as new features are added.

[kuschku]

It's not required, but the average Agile project ends up with update support like Android, and with a complexity like the Facebook Android App (which had to rewrite dalvik at runtime because they didn't plan about the limits of the VM they were working on).

Having a plan is the first step to perfection, they say.

[dustinleblanc]

Agile has never said you don't plan, you just don't fully trust plans made without all the information. You make your plan, and its great as far as up front plans go, but it WILL be wrong in some ways, and you will update it.

Who ever said you don't plan in agile and scrum? Where does the magical backlog you start the project with come from?

The point is not to pretend you know things that you don't. You have a severly flawed interpretation of what agile means.

[collyw]

Agiles definition seems to get redefined every time a discussion like this appears on HN.