Agile Mastery

I'm in London, having just finished presenting at QCon.

One of the tracks was called Reflecting on our Agile Journey - How do we reach Mastery? The more I think about that, the more the title worries me, because it seems to contain an implicit assumption—that mastery is some state that can be reached.

I think there are methodologies which can be mastered, where you can say “now I know it all.” I don't believe agility is in that camp. For me, agility is all about the journey. Along the way, we'll always be faced with forks in the road. The agile principles help us decide which to take. And we just carry on, enjoying the trip and doing our best along the way.

Comments

[BigJimInDC]

Based on your comments, take a look at this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Mastery-Success-Long-Term-Fulfillment-Plume/dp/0452267560/

I am assuming the speaker/author of that track is familiar with the above book.

Enjoy...

[McdTracy]

I think you get to Mastery the same way you "get to Carnagie Hall".

Google snipped text:

The joke has been told a thousand times. I remember reading it as a supposedly "true" anecdote in Reader's Digest when I was a kid. That version had violinist Jascha Heifitz being hailed by a man on a New York street. The man asks Heifitz, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" And Heifitz replies, always "without breaking stride," "Practice!"

Mastery comes with study, execution in an exhausting loop... and "talent" seems to increase the rate at which someone approaches the end point... and achieving the goal is a subjective opinion.

Many play the piano but few achieve mastery.

Many write programs... few achieve mastery. You probably know one when you meet one if you've made enough effort to see appreciate the accumulated skills.

[Giles Bowkett]

There's a great book on mastery by an aikido "master."

"How long does it take to master aikido?"
"How long do you expect to live?"

http://www.amazon.com/Mastery-Success-Long-Term-Fulfillment-Plume/dp/0452267560/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-2692702-2716964?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174333429&sr=8-1

All about the idea that mastery isn't a state but a process.

[diana plesa]

Thanks for blogging about QCon! I just wanted to let you know that we quoted and linked from this entry on the over all QCon 2007 blogger's key takeaway points and lessons learned article: http://www.infoq.com/articles/qcon-2007-bloggers-summary

Feel free to link to it and of course blogging about this articles existence would help even more people learn from your and other bloggers takeaways.

Thanks again!

Diana
InfoQ/QCon