Changing Software Development: Learning to Become Agile

8.3. Satir's Theory of Change

Satir's change model^[] derives from work on family theory. Like the Lewin model, it starts with the status quo, although in this model the current position is shown as the first stage in the model. Gerry Weinberg^[] has done much to map Satir's model into the software development domain.

^[] See Satir (1991).

^[] See Weinberg (1997).

Figure 8.3 shows Satir's model graphically and is almost self-explanatory. In this model we start in a stable state; things are better on some days and worse on others, but on the whole we continue just as we always have done.

Then something happens. Satir calls this a 'foreign element', but it could be something, someone or some event. This could be a relatively minor change, or it could be major change such as switching to a new programming language. At first, we try to resist the change and carry on as before, but performance declines as nothing that we do any longer produces the same result.

Now we're no longer in our old state, but we don't know how to act in the new state. For the individual, chaos ensues: dread, panic, despair and apathy. To the rest of the world this may look like normality, but to the individual things are unclear.

Figure 8.3. Satir's change model.

Eventually, we have a 'transforming idea' that enables us to understand what's happening and start to make sense of the changed world. Things don't get ...