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- February 4, 2016
- Rants
In his book Crossing the Chasm, Jeffrey A. Moore discusses what he calls the technology adoption life cycle for new products. He describes five distinct phases that innovative products go through based on the five different kinds of adoptors. The technology adoption life cycle applies not only to new products but also to anything new including new methodologies.
The first group to adopt these new approaches are called the innovators. Innovators like to discover new things. So much so that they put up with the inevitable kinks and bugs that come with innovation.
The next group are called the early adopters. These people are inspired by the success of innovators and see the potential in a new technology way before the mainstream. There are still challenges and issues to be worked out, but early adopters recognize the benefits of the new technology for themselves.
The next group to get involved are called the early majority. These people have waited until much of the kinks are worked out, so things are easier to work with. As the innovative technology penetrates the early majority, Moore refers to this as “crossing the chasm.” This is a sign that an innovation is on its way to becoming mainstream.
Now that that innovation is mainstream due to the assimilation and promotion of the early majority, the late majority gets involved. At this point the innovation is easy to use and commonplace.
Finally, the last group, called the laggards, gets involved only when there is no other alternative available.
Agile is crossing the chasm. It has gone beyond the early adopters and is penetrating into the early majority. Even after fifteen years, Agile practices have not fully crossed the chasm. In truth, only some of the easer Agile practices have actually crossed the chasm. Many of the more complex technical practices of Agile are just starting to hit early adopters.
As I say in my book, Beyond Legacy Code: Nine Practices to Extend the Life (and Value) of Your Software. “it’s not unusual for this continuous innovation to be adopted discontinuously.” However, much of the real value of doing Agile development comes from the technical practice of this.
In Beyond Legacy Code I focus on nine key Agile practices that provide the highest value for software development teams, the ones that allow us to rapidly build maintainable software. It’s not just the practices that are essential, but the purpose behind the practices is also critical for applying the practices correctly. If we understand the principals behind the practices we’ll help carry Agile fully across the chasm.
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