The Forest and the Desert is a metaphor for eager about software program
growth processes, developed by Beth Andres-Beck and hir father Kent Beck.
It posits that two communities of software program builders have nice problem
speaking to one another as a result of they reside in very completely different contexts, so
recommendation that applies to at least one appears like nonsense to the opposite.
The desert is the frequent world of software program growth, the place bugs are
plentiful, ability is not cultivated, and communications with customers is troublesome.
The forest is the world of a well-run group that makes use of one thing like Excessive Programming, the place builders swiftly put adjustments into
manufacturing, protected by their checks, code is invested in to maintain it wholesome,
and there may be common contact with The Buyer.
Clearly Beth and Kent favor The Forest (as do I). However the metaphor is extra
about how description of The Forest and the recommendation for find out how to work there usually
sounds nonsensical to these whose solely expertise is The Desert. It reminds us
that any classes we draw about software program growth follow, or architectural
patterns, are ruled by the context that we skilled them. It’s attainable
to alter Desert into Forest, nevertheless it’s troublesome – usually requiring folks to do
issues which are each onerous and counter-intuitive. (It appears sadly simpler for
The Forest to undergo desertification.)
On this framing I am positively a Forest Dweller, and search with Thoughtworks
to domesticate a wholesome forest for us and our shoppers. I work to clarify The Forest to Desert
Dwellers, and assist my fellow Forest Dwellers to make their forest much more
plentiful.
Acknowledgements
Kent Beck equipped the picture, which he might have painstakingly drew pixel by
pixel. Or not.
