Friday, June 13, 2014

The Agile Manifesto vs. The German Beer Purity Law

I have lost count how many times I have heard people say "..but we're not pure agile" "They're not agile because they do..." This blog was sparked by such statements and it got me thinking: is there a "pure" agile? Does putting up an agile board automatically make you agile? If you don't have a ScrumMaster are you agile? I was once in a shop who's pilot agile team had no testers because they were "pure agile" and "there are not testers in agile."

I approached answering this question as a tester would by asking what would a minimal agile shop look like? What would an ideal agile shop look like? And if yours falls somewhere in between then you are, to some degree, agile. When put in this context every shop is agile to varying degrees. Some do it well, some don't; some have dedicated agile coaches, other don't; some have professional tester who know what they are doing, some have developers testing. It's all agile.

But my true epiphany answer came at a bar. Hard to believe, huh? I was having some fancy German beer that stated on the bottle something to effect of "brewed under the German Beer Purity Law." I am proud to say that I knew what it meant. The German Beer Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot) of 1487 states:

beer can only be brewed using water, malt and hops. 

In Germany this is a big deal. Truth be told, it is the law for most beers brewed in Germany. But does that make Reinheitsgebot-adhering beers better? No, of course not. It just means that those brewed with ingredients not on the list don't get the Reinheitsgebot seal of approval. But they are still beer.

As I got to thinking about the Reinheitsgebot it made me think about how many different varieties of beer this bar served and how few probably adhered to the Reinheitsgebot. Just like the software development world and the Agile Manifesto. There are numerous shops which are agile to one degree or another. The percentage which are "pure agile" (defined as strictly adhering to the Agile Manifesto an its Principles) is probably <5%; just as the beers at this bar were probably <5% Reinheitsgebot-adherent. But that is not a bad thing. It simply means each shop is at a different stage of agile evolution. Some are not as evolved, some are much more evolved, some are in the middle; but all can call themselves "agile".

Both the Reinheitsgebot and the Agile Manifesto serve as a purity beacon. And both are not meant to be absolute. They are guidelines. Nothing more, nothing less. We are humans and it is our nature to be creative, innovative, and do what we are told we are not allowed to do. If I have no malt, but an abundance of wheat, I'm using wheat instead. Reinheitsgebot be damned. Does that make my beer any less of a beer? In Germany, maybe. But everywhere else in the world no. My beer is still beer and my software development style is still agile.

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