Methodologies, Theories and Practices, Oh My!

A few days ago, I was having an interesting conversation with a friend of mine at work about the recent (and not so recent) deluge of methodologies, theories and practices that apply to software development projects.  Now, I’m not knocking any methodology, theory or practice in particular, but I am questioning whether or not the sheer volume of this psychology is affecting the productivity and effectiveness of a development team.  Is there an imbalance in your project?  Do you feel that you may be spending too much focusing on the trip and not enough on the destination?

I’m not really even opposed to adhering strictly to development methodologies and practices, but, if those practices don’t add any business value and are being utilized simply because they are currently “en vogue”, then those methodologies as they apply to the project are a form of waste.  For example, I’m a huge proponent of Scrum, but there are simply some places that Scrum is not a good fit for.  Scrum development teams are self organizing… if I had a team of a bunch of junior developers straight out of college, then trying to enforce that practice may be considered wasteful.  Scrum is also dependent on an active and engaged Product Owner… if a client is not receptive to that, then, again, this practice would be wasteful.

I guess the point that I’m trying to drive home is that as great as some of these methodologies, theories and practices may be, you need to continually keep your eyes on the prize… the prize being the product that you are developing for a client.  Some practices, depending on your situation, may not only help you get to the prize much more quickly, but may also help you deliver a much higher-quality product that meets or even exceeds your client’s expectations.  The flipside of that coin is that other practices may leave you trying to pound a square peg into a round hole and in the end delivering a product that isn’t even close to what the client wants.  If something is causing you to lose focus on the product, then that something could probably be classified as waste if you really think about it.