As much as I would love to be able to spit out random tidbits of Buddhist wisdom on command, I can’t. But when I was reading Chris’ Kanban Kerfuffle, this one bubbled to the surface.

If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!

As usual, there are many, many explanations of what it means, but the one that I like best is from the Daily Buddha.

Whatever your conception is of the Buddha, it’s WRONG! Now kill that image and keep practicing. and I don’t think it means you cannot achieve Enlightenment, but it does mean that you really cannot conceive what it is until you get there. stand out in the discussion.

Now swap our ‘Process’ or ‘Best Practice’ for Buddha.

The software world is afflicted with the Shiny Object Syndrome. RUP, CMMi, Agile, XP, Scrum, Lean, Kanban, etc., etc., etc.. And it seems like the half-life of each object is decreasing.

Am I an Agilista? I don’t think so, though I do advocate agility. Which is partly why I get a kick out of the ‘we must do this process‘ zealotry. What is the Best Practice or Process for your organization? No one knows except you. And it likely isn’t going to look like someone else’s. Instead, companies should pick and choose from all the processes available and come up with something that works for them, their people and their products.

Have I done Kanban before? No. Do I like the idea of non-defined iterations resulting in a constant stream of value being released? Absolutely. But I think I like it even better using TDD / pairing (XP) and daily stand-ups (Scrum).

I think too that part of the value and experienced QA person brings is to know as many of these processes as possible and when (and which parts) to kill, and which to embrace.