A Barely Sufficient Methodology

The final component of an ASDE is methodology. The traditional definition of methodology includes things such as roles, activities, processes, techniques, and tools. Alistair Cockburn summarizes these components when he defines methodology as "the conventions we agree to" the ways in which people work together on a project. In The Social Life of Information, John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid discuss the major differences between process (as used by the business process reengineering movement) and practice [Brown+2000]. Processes are described in manuals; practices are what happen in reality. Process centrists relegate people to second place; practice centrists place people first. Process centrists focus on explicit (written-down) knowledge, while practice centrists focus on tacit (internal) knowledge. The ASDE model provides a practice-centered, rather than a process-centered, approach to methodology.

There are two reasons to pursue barely sufficient methodologies: value and innovation. Streamlined methodologies concentrate on those activities that create value, and ruthlessly eliminate non-value-adding activities. Programming usually adds value; process management often adds overhead. Bare sufficiency means keeping the former and eliminating the latter. Second, innovation and creativity flourish in chaordic environments, not orderly ones. Barely sufficient methodologies are cauldrons for breeding innovation.

Methodology also relates to organizational model. Agile methodologies contain minimal processes and documentation, and reduced ceremony (formality). Agile methodologies are labeled "barely sufficient" or "a little bit less than just enough" or "minimal." However, this streamlining of methodology isn't just based on reducing work, but, more importantly, it is based on understanding the chaordic world view one in which emergent (innovative) results are best generated at the "edge of chaos," perched midway between chaos and order.

Practices (or techniques) are the lifeblood of methodology. Whether it's pair programming, Scrum meetings, customer focus groups, or automated testing, the practices of ASDEs, carried out by talented and skilled individuals, produce results.