The Art of Agile Development

Don’t Make Your Own Method

Just as established agile methods combine existing practices, you might want to create your own agile method by mixing together practices from various agile methods. At first glance, this doesn’t seem too hard. There are scores of good agile practices to choose from.

However, creating a brand-new agile method is a bad idea if you’ve never used agile development before. Just as there’s more to programming than writing code, there’s more to agile development than the practices. The practices are an expression of underlying agile principles. (For more on agile principles, see Part III.) Unless you understand those principles intimately—that is, unless you’ve already mastered the art of agile development—you’re probably not going to choose the right practices. Agile practices often perform double- and triple-duty, solving multiple software development problems simultaneously and supporting each other in clever and surprising ways.

Figure 2-2. Agile principles

Every project and situation is unique, of course, so it’s a good idea to have an agile method that’s customized to your situation. Rather than making an agile method from scratch, start with an existing, proven method and iteratively refine it. Apply it to your situation, note where it works and doesn’t, make an educated guess about how to improve, and repeat. That’s what experts do.