You Are What You Eat

Now that the Temple had adopted the Agile Way, its analysts, developers, and testers had been reorganized into many Tiny Clans. Each Tiny Clan had been given the freedom to develop its applications in whatever manner it saw fit.

It was still the task of the masters to review the code of all, though their authority had been much diminished. Thus it was with no great joy that young master Zjing reviewed the code of the new clans.

After the early morning meal, Zjing took a printout to the head monk of the Swooping Falcon Clan.

“You have implemented business logic that is outside your purview,” said Zjing, pointing to the code. “The Nimble Roadrunner Clan is chiefly responsible for this business process. They should provide a library or service for you to consume.”

“Yet they offer neither,” said the head monk. “Copying their code was effortless. Petitioning them for an API would impede our progress and create another external dependency for us to track—thus hindering our progress in the future.”

After the late morning meal, Zjing took her printout to the head nun of the Nimble Roadrunner Clan.

“The Swooping Falcon Clan has duplicated your business logic,” said Zjing, pointing to the code. “You should provide a library or service for them to consume.”

“Yet we ourselves need neither,” said the head nun. “Embedding the logic in our UI was effortless. Extracting and packaging it for external consumption would impede our progress and create another API for us to manage—thus hindering our progress in the future.”

After the midday meal, Zjing set off into the woods to clear her mind.

On the journey out, she saw five wolves surround a stag. The deer, lacking a direction in which to escape, was soon taken down by the swiftest wolf, whereupon the whole pack ate well.

On the journey back, she saw three rabbits nibbling on clover in a wide green clearing. No rabbit let a single minute pass without attempting to chase its fellows away. Indeed, as much time was spent rushing about as eating.

At this sight, the young master was enlightened.

After the evening meal, Zjing stood before a copy of the Agile Manifesto in the Great Hall, pondering. One of the cooks asked what she was so fixated on.

Zjing said: “A change in the Temple’s diet.”

When the cook asked her to explain, Zjing said: “Not even the Patriarchs could teach a fat rabbit to be cunning. Yet if all the greenery sprouted legs and ran, what clever little hunters might the cotton-tails become...”