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Scrum is the Wing Chun of software development


Wing Chun is a Chinese martial art whose philosophy is fairly different than others and this is easily reflected in practice:


Although the instructor underlines particular situations, you get plenty of hints at what the general idea is. Adapt and react to change, embrace it, go close to it and resolve the situation in close quarters with minimum effort.

In other martial arts (Northern King Fu comes to mind), you use lengthy moves that require a lot of space. You preempt a lot of attacks, meet and challenge the opposition all while reserving your safety zone. It is very phisically challenging because you need to cover all that ground.

In Scrum, things work closer to Wing Chun. You need to be close to the customer, boxing in to be close to any change, ready to react with minimum of effort while ready for the next move, feeling it even before it happens due to the proximity.

Sure, in the beginning, before mastering it, it's easy to get hurt before you grow accustomed to the proximity and the close quarters, but soon it will allow you to win in the shortest possible time with the least possible effort.

Scrum is the Wing Chun of software development
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