Agile and the Art of Simplicity

Tushar Paunikar Avatar

Originally published on LinkedIn on 14-Sep-2016 (Agile and the Art of Simplicity)

“Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.” -Thor Heyerdahl

“Isn’t all this plain common sense!” quipped Arun. I smiled and let others absorb that remark. After 30 seconds of silence, I moved ahead with the next principle. “But, this seems to be too simple!” interrupted Arun again. I was a little miffed and amused at the same time. I didn’t anticipate this kind of interruption during a time-boxed talk on the Principles behind the Agile Manifesto. I just wanted the participants to know about the Manifesto and its 12 Principles. But here I was, standing in front of a crowd, slightly irritated at that simple remark. I gathered my senses and shot back “Agreed, it is simple common sense, and that’s the reason it is hard to comprehend.”

The Agile Manifesto is, by design, short and simple. It does not talk about the practices, frameworks, methodologies and tools for Agile software development. It does not need to. I have heard people say that the Agile Manifesto, though simple, is open to interpretation. I have a strong opinion that the interpretation depends on the intention of the interpreter. How many different interpretations can be made of a simple statement? Can a simple statement like “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise!” be interpreted in multiple ways? Yes, I’d say. Here are some of them, depending on the interpreter’s intentions:

  • This applies only to men; women need to follow some different rules.
  • If I go to bed early, wake up early and don’t work at all, I still expect to become wealthy.
  • This is the only way to be healthy, wealthy and wise, all at the same time.
  • I can make do with a little less wealth, hence I will tweak the timings.

This might look funny and exaggerated! Now, let’s take an example closer to software development. How many interpretations can this simple statement have: “Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project”?

  • Only developers are required to work with business people daily. Testers are a different breed.
  • Business people are too busy to work with developers daily, so it’s better to delegate that responsibility to somebody else. That somebody else can talk to business people when they are available.
  • Business people are located in US and the developers in India cannot have face-time with them. Hence, we rely on and collaborate through elaborate documentation and email communication daily.

These no longer look exaggerated. I have seen and heard the above interpretations in real teams and organizations. These are more like convenient workarounds. And by having these workarounds, simple things start getting complicated. And when a slightly complicated version is further interpreted by someone else, it gets more complicated. This becomes a vicious cycle; a reinforcing loop. Somewhere down the line, the complicated interpretation becomes a norm and a well-accepted standard. It reaches a point where the accepted standard is completely opposite to the statement from where it started. It becomes very hard to go back to the original simplicity; so hard that many of us give up on this onerous task and continue living in the world of complications.

I think the Agile movement is currently undergoing this phase. With so many decorations, terminologies, frameworks, certifications, roles, artifacts, processes, tools and acronyms, we are lost on the simplicity of the Agile Manifesto.

So what’s the way out? We need to go back to the simple world of agility. We need to ask ourselves what really do we want, we need, we desire. We need to again think why the Agile Manifesto was created. We need to have courage and determination to go back to the basics, the roots, the foundations. We need to learn to unlearn and unlearn to learn.

And how, you may ask, can this be achieved? There’s no single straightforward answer to this poser. I believe, understanding and achieving simplicity is an art. The famous German fine-art photographer Wolfgang Tillmans says:

“It’s very easy to make things complicated. That doesn’t require much thought. Making things appear simple, however, that is much more complicated.”

Each one of us has a different view of simplicity. The only common thread would be the relentless desire to keep things simple. Mastering the art of simplicity will be the key to untangle the complications we have drowned ourselves into. Incidentally, one of the principles behind the Agile Manifesto provides us with some guidance. It defines simplicity as the “art of maximizing the amount of work not done”. The 20th century Chinese writer, Lin Yutang, has very aptly described it in one of his quotes, years before anybody even thought of Agile software development.

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”

With this thought, I leave you to ponder on your idea of simplicity. I really admire your patience to read through this complicated write-up on a complicated topic. Do leave a comment, even if you have differing views on simplicity.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author’s current or previous employers.

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