At Agile2008 I watched Ron Jeffries and Chet Hendrickson talk about the natural laws of software development. Deriving agile practices from first principles could help people see beneath the practices to understand why they are done and why they are done like they are.
But, how many developers are truly capable of achieving the levels of discipline, craftsmanship and ethics and the necessary level of rigour to use these practices to great effect? Can this stuff really be coached to anyone or only those with an aptitude for it? Regardless, getting people to first understand the 'why' is definitely a step worth taking.
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