Since the declaration of the Agile Manifesto our industry has seen and continues to see many agile methodologies, some better than others. The large number of methods and practices can be confusing and overwhelming for newcomers although each offer their own advantages in different circumstances.
Methodologies offer a starting point for a set of practices, not an end point like many people think. I draw upon practices from a variety of methodologies almost all the time because I find value using them. Some examples include: Continuous Integration, Co-Located and Cross-Functional Teams, Test Driven Development, Refactoring, Daily Stand-Ups, Small Iterations and Retrospectives. Although I feel agile values and principles are important, I also believe that practices are just as important. Practices offer people something concrete to start with and a way to breath life into a principle or value.
After working for more than a decade in agile teams and enviornments, I truly believe there is one key agile practice that has the biggest impact. Organisations, teams and people who fail to use the most essential agile practice end up cargo-culting, or using a practice because others are using it and are unlikely to gain real value from the practice. Organisations, teams and people who use the most essential agile practice become the best at what they do because they understand why they are doing what they do.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results – Albert Einstein
The most essential agile practice is Reflection. In the upcoming follow on article, I will explain how I have seen organisations, teams and people use the practice of reflection.
Agree 100% with this. “Inspect and adapt” is a principle that I think is missing from many teams’ discussions of agile.