People in AYE take for granted concepts and methodologies which have not filtered out into the wider world. And much of the discussion is not about getting the framework up. It's about incremental improvements on what is already known.
Over several years, I've made progressively closer steps to agile. I've written unit tests, mock objects and unit testing frameworks. I've written integration tests and built integration test frameworks, and can talk about data driven frameworks. I've created repeatable, automated build and deployment processes and have continuous integration with built in code analysis and code coverage.
But I've never worked in an agile project using iterations, or a company comfortable with agile processes. The closest I've ever come has been the promise of a discussion where agile would be discussed as a serious option. Someday.
To me, AYE, or BayXP, or any number of blogs, sound like discussions on the best way to fly using the wings on your back. If you have wings, flying is easy. If you don't have wings... how do you get them?
I'm not trying to be funny here. I think that agile processes are an honest attempt to redefine the practice of software engineering. But there is a divide between the have and have-nots. And trying to learn what I can in a field in which I can't practice it is... well... it's...
It's frustrating.