This question was raised and discussed at stackoverflow recently. Having used Grails for the sixbee project I shared our experiences compared to standard J2EE application development, especially to the subquestion:
Does it really confer rapid development benefits?
Definitely, it does. Even if the scaffolding path is left early and conventions are overriden to the own needs, the start-up period is very short, as we don’t have to care for many different technologies. That kind of lightweightness makes us work not only faster, but also more precise and clean. >> more…
Neither does 37signals: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100601/never-read-another-resume.html
The code candidates send us is much more interesting than the typical alphabet soup project listings you normally find in developer resumes (“worked on XML/SOAP/J2EE/AOP project using Oracle, IntelliJ, Java 1.6 and Rational Rose”)
Typically we can tell just from the code if we want to hire somebody. The interview is typically to check for cultural fit. And most people we hire spend a day here working with us. In the last two years we only had one false positive, whom we had to let go during the initial months.
Do you love to be surrounded by as much and good as possible technical equipment or do you prefer to sit in a group of at least three peers discussing a detail no matter how small the screen is? And what do you like about your favourite setting? In our team both work modes coexist peacefully completing each other and also the happy medium (2:2) can be observed sometimes – and of course also the small screens are of high quality.
Last week I not only finally managed to get my beloved reading lamp repaired, of course an Artemide Tolomeo 
, but also to utilize the newly provided cozily, brightly, and energy-savingly lit space to finish the book I had started the week before. And because I am excited about it, let me share my excitement with you:
The book title “Scrumban” is the combination of Scrum and Kanban, two management methods. Scrum is one of the predominant inhabitants of the Agile management method zoo, while Kanban originates from the lean management revolution attributed to the car manufacturer Toyota. >> more…
