Originally published on LinkedIn on 30-Sep-2016 (Agile and the Value of Integrity).

“You know what, I spend only 20% of my effort in coaching on process and practices; the rest 80% goes in coaching the team on behavioral aspects to absorb and realize the Agile values”, said Arojothi Balakrishnan (Aro), a friend and a fellow Agile Coach.

Prologue

I couldn’t have agreed more with Aro. Others, probably, would have a different distribution of these numbers, but all would agree that he perfectly summed up the day-job travails of Agile Coaches.

Why do we have to stress so much on values, when we talk about Agile? Did we ever hear or read about the values underlying waterfall software development? I have not. I believe this is the core difference between the traditional ways of developing software and Agile software development. The fact that it has an underlying set of values, speaks a lot about the philosophy and rationale behind Agile software development.

The Agile Value System

The Agile Manifesto talks about valuing interactions, collaboration, creating working software and embracing change. In plain English, can these words be treated as values? Aren’t these rather actions?

Value is defined as relative worth, merit or importance (dictionary.com). This means that Agilists consider interactions, collaboration, creating working software and embracing change as more valuable, worthy and important than processes, tools, comprehensive documentation, contract negotiation and following a plan. If you look at it, these valuable aspects lead to creating valuable software; software which is valuable to the customer and end-users.

In other words, to create valuable software and to embrace change, teams and customers need to continuously interact and collaborate with each other. One might draw a conclusion that by interaction and collaboration, teams and customers start trusting each other. I’d say this is correct, but only partially. Trusting each other involves lot more than mere interaction and collaboration. It needs individuals to be honest, open-minded, truthful and ready to listen to the others’ perspectives. This further means than individuals need to exhibit integrity in their thoughts, words, actions and interactions. And how beautifully Dalai Lama has summarized this:

“If you are honest, truthful, and transparent, people trust you. If people trust you, you have no grounds for fear, suspicion or jealousy.”

What I want to convey is, without valuing and exhibiting integrity, one may not effectively practice collaboration. Am I saying that integrity should be at the root of Agile software development? Yes. As a corollary, am I also saying that traditional software development practitioners do not possess the value of integrity? Oops, this statement can potentially open up a can of worms. So let’s leave it at that. Its anyway open to interpretation.

Now, the bigger question. Should Agile Coaches also exhibit this value of integrity? Without any doubt, yes.

In fact, without possessing, understanding and practicing the core value of integrity, an Agile Coach is not an Agile Coach.

An Agile Coach will be able to concentrate her/his efforts in facilitating change in the team’s behavior, only when integrity in ingrained in her/his psyche.

The Episode

This section will make good sense to those who have read my previous article. If you have not, here’s the link.

Mr. RA1 (pun intended; RA are the actual initials; those familiar with Indian mythology shall unwittingly read this as…) reads my article and is mighty impressed. He is so impressed that he copies some snippets and posts them on Facebook. One of my good friends notices this and informs me.

My reaction? Furious and elated; you might have guessed the reasons for such mixed and opposite emotions. What do I do? I think a bit and write a polite comment on his post.

I am very satisfied with my comment, but only for a short duration. One doesn’t need a very huge heart to acknowledge one’s mistake (willing or unwilling), I assume. So, what is Mr. RA1’s response? Right, he acknowledges his mistake and offers a hand of friendship. Wrong, Mr. RA1 simply deletes the post along with all the responses and likes. Yes, he actually deletes everything, without even tendering a word, within 4 hours of my comment.

I’d like to mention one important aspect of this episode. Mr. RA1 is an Agile Coach!

Epilogue

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. RA1 for inspiring me to pen this article.

While the words like integrity, transparency, trust and honesty seem non-practical in today’s world, I believe these form the core of our existence. Without these qualities, we’d soon cease to exist as human beings.

Before closing, here’s some sane advice from Warren Buffet.

“In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.”

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.