Agile Way of Criticism

Let’s consider two big parliamentary democracies – India and Germany. In both cases chief executive of country is the Prime Minister. In Germany that person is called the Chancellor.

For a moment presume that the Indian prime minister loses his majority in the parliament.  He can be removed by passing a no-confidence motion. Country can be thrown into limbo and may result in a costly and lengthy process of general elections even if they’d had one before. What a tragedy!

Now jump to Germany. Opposition does not like the current Chancellor and would like to remove her. Can the opposition move a no-confidence motion? The answer is No. In a no-confidence motion, the opposition must also propose a new Chancellor’s name. No chaos but a positive no-confidence motion!

Enough politics! Now let’s come back to the software industry. How many times you have faced criticism of your work – code, architecture, documentation, or any other artifact without suggestion of alternatives. Do you criticize the work of others and but also suggest alternative way of doing the same? If your answer is YES, then you are following the Agile Way of criticism.