The Curse of a Name: How to Kill a Good Idea

What do the following have in common?

• Agile Software Development
• Six Sigma
• Behavior Driven Development
• Software Craftsmanship
• DevOps

Each of these represents a good idea that a group of well-meaning people tried (and succeeded) to spread into the world.

Each is generally poorly defined and poorly understood.

Each term has now lost its meaning.

Each term, with new watered-down, wrong-headed interpretations is being used constantly to create a false sense of security and justification for bad practices.

In each case, adoption of a good idea is being accidentally replaced by adoption of a name which represents that good idea. The term becomes a placeholder for good intention.

I can “do BDD” in the same way that I can sign up for a membership at a gym. I feel the sense of accomplishment without the need to actually get healthy.

Originally published at chadfowler.com on November 25, 2014.