Agile and Music

Last night on HBO was a documentary about U2. It was a really an interview with Bono and Edge. Since I like U2's music I thought I would watch it.

During the interview Bono and Edge talked about the way they write music and it was very interesting. Although they never used the terms requirements, iterative development, and unit testing, those concepts were part of there process so to speak.

The way they discussed music was like this. Before recording they would have a general understanding of what they wanted to achieve. They usually entered the studio only with a bass line, or guitar riff. They would then use that and build on top of it. Perhaps adding a drum beet or maybe a verse like doing an iteration. After every addition they would playback what they did and decided it was correct. After a countless number of these iterations they would arrive to the finished product, another hit song.

I am not sure why I made this connection or found it interesting other than it is the same process I use at my job. I also wonder if other jobs follow a similar process to complete there jobs.