The Forest and the Desert is a metaphor for thinking about software
development processes, developed by Beth Anders-Beck and her father Kent Beck.
It posits that two communities of software developers have great difficulty
communicating to each other because they live in very different contexts, so
advice that applies to one sounds like nonsense to the other.
The desert is the common world of software development, where bugs are
plentiful, skill isn’t cultivated, and communications with users is difficult.
The forest is the world of a well-run team that uses something like Extreme Programming, where developers swiftly put changes into
production, protected by their tests, code is invested in to keep it healthy,
and there is regular contact with The Customer.
Clearly Beth and Kent prefer The Forest (as do I). But the metaphor is more
about how description of The Forest and the advice for how to work there often
sounds nonsensical to those whose only experience is The Desert. It reminds us
that any lessons we draw about software development practice, or architectural
patterns, are governed by the context that we experienced them. It is possible
to change Desert into Forest, but it’s difficult – often requiring people to do
things that are both hard and counter-intuitive. (It seems sadly easier for
The Forest to submit to desertification.)
In this framing I’m definitely a Forest Dweller, and seek with Thoughtworks
to cultivate a healthy forest for us and our clients. I work to explain The Forest to Desert
Dwellers, and help my fellow Forest Dwellers to make their forest even more
plentiful.
Acknowledgements
Kent Beck supplied the image, which he may have painstakingly drew pixel by
pixel. Or not.
