Value: Courage
  • Courage is infectious

  • Fear is a prime motivator, esp. in public

  • Throw code away; keep your experience

  • The little engine that could

  • XP uses courage to face change

Notes:

Fear is infectious, but so is courage. If we have courage, we can test our limits. If we succeed, we are joyful. If we fail, our team supports us in the failure. We aren't alone. The virtuous circle is unbroken.

Fear is an important factor in any relationship. If we have courage, we can face our own fears and help others get through theirs. Most people react to change with fear. We need courage to embrace change. The world is constantly changing and we'll be happier if we have the courage to accept it.

Some people say "code it twice". You are going to throw away code. You learned from this experience of developing it. Take that experience and turn it into new and better code. Don't throw away code just for fun, however. You need to have the courage to read the code in order to to see if the issue is your lack of understanding or that the code is just plain. bad

We need courage to do things like DTSTTCPW and YAGNI. It goes against our scout training of being prepared and on the alert. You can do it simply the first time and refactor later. It takes courage, but the little engine that could was able to make it up the mountain one chug at a time.

Courage is required to use XP's other values effectively. You can't DTSTTCPW without courage. You can't communicate without facing your fears of exposing yourself to criticism. You can't take feedback without accepting the fact that there is no right and wrong. XP is about getting the most out of everybody. It takes courage to keeping its practices from bringing out the worst in people.