The Artima Developer Community
Sponsored Link

Agile Buzz Forum
Values, Practices & Principles

0 replies on 1 page.

Welcome Guest
  Sign In

Go back to the topic listing  Back to Topic List Click to reply to this topic  Reply to this Topic Click to search messages in this forum  Search Forum Click for a threaded view of the topic  Threaded View   
Previous Topic   Next Topic
Flat View: This topic has 0 replies on 1 page
Simon Baker

Posts: 1022
Nickname: sjb140470
Registered: Jan, 2006

Simon Baker is an independent consultant, agile coach and scrum master
Values, Practices & Principles Posted: Dec 17, 2006 9:22 AM
Reply to this message Reply

This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Simon Baker.
Original Post: Values, Practices & Principles
Feed Title: Agile In Action
Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AgileInAction
Feed Description: Energized Work's blog.
Latest Agile Buzz Posts
Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Simon Baker
Latest Posts From Agile In Action

Advertisement
'What's the difference?!'

It seems that there's a lot of confusion about these terms of late.

Values. These are the ideals that a group of people embrace. They can be positive or negative - e.g. empowerment or control. These values are implicit in the personality or culture of a company. Values are often emotive - they represent driving forces behind people.

Principles. Although the word stems from the Latin for leader or emperor, in this context we're talking about it as a general law or essence - e.g. principles of modern physics

Practices. The easiest one to grasp - a set of repeatable actions you perform. Practice the flute. Practice loyalty. Practice developing software by driving with tests. OK, that one's easy.

So how do these terms tie together? A practice works in a given context due to an underlying principle or principles. For example, the practice of employing small easy-to-adjust tooling machinery in place of one large cumbersome automated device is more productive for a manufacturing line with varying output requirements. The underlying principle is basically to 'smooth the value stream' - reducing bottlenecks to enable flow. Continuous integration is a software development practice that is backed by the same principle. For an individual to adopt a practice they must see that the practice works in the field and understand the principle(s) behind it.

How are values related? Practices produce effects that support one or more values.If a development organisation values the ability to meet their customers needs (rather than make the customer fit their needs as so often happens), then a practice such as TDD will support that value as it keeps the cost of change low over time (the principles, to name but a few: once and once only, simplest thing that works). This is where Agile/XP teams often run into difficulty with organisational structure - many of the practices support values that are not necessarily consistent with those of the organisation (empowerment being a key example). Worse still, a company may have no common values (perhaps due to a lack of common vision or leadership) or different elements of a company may hold conflicting values.

Read: Values, Practices & Principles

Topic: It's beginning to smell a lot like CORBA Previous Topic   Next Topic Topic: Bad Assumptions

Sponsored Links



Google
  Web Artima.com   

Copyright © 1996-2019 Artima, Inc. All Rights Reserved. - Privacy Policy - Terms of Use