Posts Tagged ‘chuck norris’
Chuck Norris Doesn’t Need to Be Agile
The first reference of Chuck Norris in the Agile world has appeared in a post of Markus Gärtner named Scrum Norris. It was in February 2010. The post presents a list of humoristic facts about Chuck Norris, in the same way as the site Chuck Norris Facts. After the XP2010 conference, during June 2010, it gains a popularity over Twitter (twitter:#scrumnorris).
Recently, I have even found a reference to Chuck Norris in a presentation about TDD by John Ferguson Smart: Real Developers Don’t Need Unit Tests.
Here are some of my favourite facts:
- When Chuck Norris says “done”, then it’s “done”.
- Chuck Norris always wins at Planning Poker.
- Chuck Norris doesn’t technical documentation. He just stares down the code until it tells him everything he wants to know.
Here is mine:
Chuck Norris doesn’t need to be agile. The customer is always satisfied with what Chuck Norris delivers.
At last, you will find another version but applied to Jeff Sutherland (…among others): Jeff Sutherland Facts.
Who is Chuck Norris in fact?
Who Chuck Norris might represents? Is there a kind of developer or of manager that might meet this facts? I am sure you have met him, at least once, in the real life. I am sure you have still met such a developer saying that he does not need to test what he has delivered:
Chuck Norris writes the code first, never the test (He doesn’t need to test at all).
You have seen another one manipulating production code.
Chuck Norris does not deploy, he develops on the production environment.
On the other hand, you may have worked in an environment where you have to be right at the first iteration.
Chuck Norris doesn’t do iterative development. It’s right the first time, forever.
In reality, Chuck Norris may have different faces. He may represents all that guys, sort of veteran of IT architecture or other sceptical gurus. He is convinced to know everything. For them, every new knowledges are just hypes. He is one of your developer or, in the worst case, he is your leader.
Chuck Norris may also represent young developers thinking there is nothing more than what they have learned at University.
Maybe, he is you (or he was you)!
So what to do?
If Chuck Norris is you, the solution is simple: be open minded. Look at new practices, read articles, try the technologies before criticise them, do not be biased. If Chuck Norris is not you but someone else in your team, I think nothing worth a good friendly chat. And as any good Agile evangelist may recommend:
Pairing sometimes works. (J.F. Smart)
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