After finishing Kent Beck’s Extreme Programming recently, I was left with questions about how and why. I agree with the ideas in the book, but there’s always this “but” that seems to undo everything before it. I can read many research papers about individual or group work, yet the resistance remains.
From school to university and into the early years of work, we’re taught to focus on individual work—individual effort combined with social interaction. As we progress up the career ladder, social interaction becomes more important. But collective engineering practices, like those described in the book, promote something different.
When we already have a tool in our toolbox, there’s no resistance to using it. It becomes a choice: I understand the limits of individual work, I understand the limits of group work, and I know the best contexts for each. Over time and with experience, I can adjust and improve.
Still, I find myself making excuses—the best ones:
- “I thought it wasn’t the right time or context.” No.
- “I need to be fully prepared before introducing it to the team.” No. These are just ways of delaying action and avoiding hands-on experience.
So, why not jump into the rabbit hole having a safe reverse back button?
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I’m Alex, tech lead in Prestatech with experience from startups to middle-sized and big-tech companies. Loves to make effective and friendly team processes.
You can freely drop a message to [email protected] or linkedin.com/in/aptakhin to greet and ask questions about any topic.