&gt; open floor plans suck but you get used to them and start feel isolated when you go back to a cube<p>I felt the same way.  And now after a few years of open floor plans, I actually love them.  Sure there are some drawbacks: noise can increase, and certainly there are more distractions, but there are many benefits.  Communication is easier.  That feeling of isolation is gone.  The group feels more cohesive.  I think the only modification that could be made would be to create more isolated areas off to the side either for individual work or team meetings.  And companies are doing that, although the private areas are moreso for meetings.  But I hear that some are even making smaller areas just for individuals who need a few hours to focus on one task.<p>&gt; Code quality suffered because of the constant pressure to get things done now<p>It takes some wisdom for managers to be able to properly apply Agile principles.  Pressuring devs to spit something out without properly designing it is poor management practice.  Its common, yes, but its still wrong.  That&#x27;s why Agile suggests a fairly wide range of time to deliver software (from two weeks to two months).  Every piece of software is different, and it takes good people to determine the correct balance between release frequency and development time.  You should prefer to release frequently, but if you&#x27;re releasing garbage then what&#x27;s the point?