Joe needed to hang a picture on the wall, he searched the web for picture hanging technologies and left some messages in some forums, after reading everything he found he conducted a short evaluation of different methodologies and in the end decided to use a nail and an hammer, he drove the nail into the wall with the hammer and hang the picture on it, he congratulated himself for the successful project.
Next morning it was time for Joe’s breakfast, he wanted to finish eating quickly so he decided to go with a proven technology for the eating project and reached for his nail and hammer…
We see this all the time, people like to find something that works and stick with it, most of the time it’s the logical choice – who has the time to start every task from scratch, find the best tools and methods for this specific task, learn how to use them and only then get started on the real work
But often the result is just as silly as someone trying to eat breakfast with a hammer.
Please don’t follow methodologies without thinking, think critically about best practices and consider the possibility your proven methods do not apply to the current situation.
And whenever you see a coworker or a friend working too hard just because he or she is trying to blindly follow a methodology that just doesn’t fit the problem, send them a link to this page.
posted @ Monday, February 23, 2009 4:14 PM