i picked this little gem from Ron Jeffries up off the agile testing list:
<snip>
I'm reading Phil Armour's "The Laws of Software Process". One of his main points is that the only things you can define in a process are the things that you already know how to do.
If you believe that, and I do, THEREFORE, we cannot define a process for beginners to follow. What do we do, instead?
We give them things to do from which they will learn.
"Wax on, wax off. Automate all tests. Begin with the simplest thing that could possibly work. Refactor in tiny steps. Always work in pairs. Write your stories on cards. Paint fence."
I think we can give them things to do and that in doing those things, they will learn, and they will change their process, even improve it. I don't think that's giving them a process.
</snip>
this ties in really nicely with Alastair Cockburn's Three Levels of Audience and Kent Beck's CMM levels for XP (from Martin Fowler's excellent article on XP variation.
i find it odd that all most all indian cars have one of those devices that play music when the car is reversing. day or night, you can hear the electronic strains of titanic or sting or whatever, blaring out of the tinny speakers at the car's rear-end. this safety consciousness in reverse seems very much in contrast to the general road sense (or lack thereof) of the typical indian driver.