The Art of Agile Development

Break the Rules

Rules are important—they exist for a reason. Yet rules can’t anticipate all situations. When established conventions thwart your attempts to succeed, it’s time to break the rules.

How do you know when to break the rules? First, you need to understand them and their reasons for existing. That comes with experience. Once you understand the rules, exercise pragmatic idealism: establish an underlying set of ideals—such as the agile principles—based on practical results. Embrace your ideals, but ground them in pragmatism. For example, “We want to avoid integration hell” is a pragmatic result that leads to the ideal of “We will never check in code that doesn’t build or pass its tests.”

With the guidance of your principles, question existing conventions. Ask yourself, “Why do we follow this rule? Do we really need it?” Modify, work around, or break the rules that prevent you from achieving success.

Remember, though, that organizational support is central to success. If you break a rule, you might step on someone’s toes. Be prepared to explain your experiment. You’ll find it’s easier to get away with breaking rules when you’ve demonstrated that you’re trustworthy and effective.

In Practice

Rule-breaking exists more in XP folklore than in XP practices. For example, early XP teams told stories of coming in to work on a weekend to dismantle cubicle walls, assuming that it would be easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Ron Jeffries, one of XP’s earliest proponents, is famous ...