I see this sometimes: To be agile requires technical practices, that's the foundation. If technical practices are ignored (which is the common case), we get FlaccidScrum.
I might agree, but I need to ask, what are the technical practices for an org transformation project? and what are the technical practices for installing a clean water system in a rural village?
Expansion on the question: XP was mostly tech practices for programming. Scrum contains no tech practices for any domain. People complain about SCrum that it misses XP's tech practices. Now I see general comments that "agile in general" is missing XP's tech practices, but they don't say "XP's tech practices", they say just "tech practices."
But agile is applicable everywhere, not just programming. When you are not in programming, XP's tech practices are not relevant ---- so, if we choose to agree that tech practices are essential to agile, we have to ask what are those tech practices that apply to some other endeavor.
People who know me also spot here that this is my way of rebutting the assertion that tech practices are the foundation of agile. if you/they can't name the tech practices for other fields, then the assertion "tech practices are the foundation of agile" is false.
So it is both an interesting question in its own right, and a challenge to the assertion. Typical Alistair styles, lol.
@totheralistair To clarify, you’re saying that iterative, adaptive approaches are applicable to other domains, right? And the question is, what do we mean by “technical practices” in those other domains, right?
@totheralistair I think for me, it’s the ability to adapt and change whatever it is that you’re working on, quickly and easily. XP gives us that in software.
For, say, an Agile Transformation, it would be the ability to change plans, to be flexible in your objectives. You’re dealing with people and organisations, not software, so good people skills are the key “technical practice” I’d say.
@totheralistair What are your feedback loops? How are you sense-making within the organisation? You need the “technical practices” to make a change, see what it did, and to reflect on that.
