Chapter 18. Introduction to the Core Protocols
Roy asked me if I wanted to write about the Core Protocols (www.mccarthyshow.com/online/). I’ll start by explaining where these protocols originated.
This story starts in 1995. Jim McCarthy wrote Dynamics of Software Development (Microsoft Press, 1995). After this book was well received in the software community (I see it as one of the predecessors of agile), Jim and his wife Michele decided to leave Microsoft to hold workshops on team-building. They designed these workshops to be experimental. The course wasn’t presented like a typical class; it was a simulated one-week project. Part of the assignment was for the students to come up with their own team rules.
After a year Jim and Michele realized that some team patterns kept getting great results. They decided to write these rules down and give them to the students attending the next workshop. They’ve done that for the last 13 years. These patterns are now called the Core Protocols.
Some—heck, most—of these rules feel strange at first. You might think, this will never work...
- In my company
- In my country
- With my wife
- With my kids
- In my team
I’m asking you to suspend your disbelief and try out a few of these in a safe environment. You don’t have to believe in the sea to get wet. You only have to get in.