The issue with words
Thats pretty much into everything, could be an ontology thats present on the idiom or could be a system present in biology.
When we go down to the IT world and also people world we have some problems with words.
The problem is not related to a common ground it self but the fact that words actually become blessings or crusts based what people understand about it. This could sound awkward but more i think i bot it more i think we need stop using words. :-)
Complexity makes things different
When we look IT industry we have in one word: Complexity. Software dealing with complex tasks, operations, volumes of data, distributed systems, different cultures, different companies, different people building it and often on a distributed scenario.
So when we say words like: Agile, Soa, Design, Reliability, Leadership you could be DONE. People could get very happy about it or very frustrated about, but why? Because when you try to talk about one concept or methodology or process or approach you are talking about your view of the thing.
Some people would want to follow other people may think you are wrong and they will not want to follow, thats could be very quickly and also very emotional. Thats why lots of people stoped using the word Agile. Because is cursed because people get it so worng them is easy to keep the good things and call it sbrubbles or my want to fix problem X.
It`s not about the definition is about the Experience
Some agile agile is just one sample, this apply to some many things on IT word. The rule is simple as more people you have doing it more change you have to do it wrong. As easy as is the barrier to enter as more people doing it you will have it - as more people doing it as more wrong things you will have it as well.
Them when you say a word like Agile or SOA it really depends on people experiences and guess what? What are the odds that the experiences are bad? Well there is a huge chance they experiences will be really bad and still we keep using this damm words.
OH: You gonna do Agile but call it xFactory35?
People do that a lot thats what marketing does all the time right, its call RE-BRANDING. :-) Often when re-branding happens they change not only the name but the focus on a specific thing they want to improve. Thats one option. Another option i think is better if focus on the problems and show what are the real problems.
People keep saying Agile or Soa but they dont really know what are the problem they are trying to solve so thats explain a lot if you think through.So if you can focus on what you want improve not only you have a better outcome but you are not tight to words(experiences) so it dont need to be agile or soa - it only needs to be better.
Some people might call this Lean or REAL Leadership or Kanban, I dont like to use this words because they would invalidate my argument here :-)
Land it down, Narrow it, Make it clear
Let people call things what ever they feel it better calling it that things. Focus on PRATICAL, Inspect and apt, Long term continuous improvement and learning because in the end of the they thats what matters. You dont need do all up to front you can do things by steps, you can go slow, just a little but and small time to time and thats okay if you keep going on the right direction.
How long takes the nature todo EVOLUTION? a lot right, a lot of time, i mean way more than decades right - so no rush, rush is your enemy. :-)
Cheers,
