40 some students alsoleamed hOW tO apply thelacquer - ー it would have taken far t00 long he had done all himself. (ltis strange thatAlexander fails to mention this in Batt/e.) The point is that mature, classic ideas have a crucialplace in the agile and software devebpment toolbox. During my visitto EishinI was reminded of Mike Cohn's then newly released b00k, much of which described a kind of guerrilla warfare approach t0 adopting Scrum.lt describes how t0 use groupthink and mass indoctrination tO move an organization tO Scrum. The b00k says very little about evaluating the suitability of Scrum tO a given product, or about deliberating and discussing change across the *. Alexander claims that he strived fO 「 such d 回 at Eishin. On a practiællevel, lfear that the sometimes militant attitude Of the agile movement cou limit the benefits tO the zealous teams where agile takes 「 00t 」 t would set up an adversarial context with the business 作 om the beginning, and that on レ makes things worse fO 「 the long tem. On a more fundamentalscale,l am concemed that this guerrilla style dissolves any system-level notion Of moving ahead judiciously and incrementally. Even Alexander is prone tO this warlike attitude, to which the title of his latest book attests. AIexandeds book omits 0 物 e 「 crucial insights from the Eishin story. FO 「 example: the decision Of where tO bcate the cafeteria came from the students. That was the foundations of one of myleamings from Eishin-gakuen.ln an Email oflate January 201 田 would write to Takeshi Kakeda about the relationship between grand architecture ideas and low-level engineering practices in softvvare•. This could be an interesting dialog. One thing lleamed at Eishin-Gakuen is that there is a yin/yang relationship bebween the power ofthe architect and the power ofthe people. The students would never have asked fo 「 the Great H 訓靆 is an artistic expression Of the architects ego. Butit setves the students well. A good architect would have placed the dining hall cbse tO classes tO save time and for convenienæ. The students, however, wanted tO locate the social expenence Of dining far 40

27 some dampening Of the increasingly Westem economic and cultural spirit, and an unspoken yeaming for the life values Ofthe classic Japanese way.lt was a time ripe for the seeds Of agile. は was a memorable trip, including a visit tO the lmperial Palace and a chance tO catch a glance Of the Emperor and his daughter, wh0 was then with child ー a child whO was, at that time, expected tO inherit the chrysanthemum throne ー however, this would end in tragedy, as the child would not survive. On this trip Christopher andl took a kabuki tour and got t0 see a play with the famous Onnagata, Nakamura Shikan. The echoes Of the shouts "Nakamura!" from the audience ring in my head tO this day.lt was my exposure t0 the conæpt 0f 間一 a comerstone 0f that would be important in myjoumey 0f leaming about desgn in Japan. Patterns 旧 August Of 2000 the Japanese contingent made a strong contribution tO the PLOP conference in Allerton Park, lllinois.l had met NorikO just a few weeks earlier at PLOP in Allerton Park and had come t0 know her a through her e 幵 0 s to translate my MuIti-Paradigm b00k. At the end 0f that month lset 0f for an extensivejoumey in Japan, which featured several days touring the temples in Nara and KY0t0. We spent three days and visited five temples.lt was my time staying in a Ryokan, which lshared with Fujino-san, Kanazawa-san and Mari Sakurai-san.lt was on this trip that lrenewed my acquaintance with Terunobu Fujino and became befter acquainted with NorikO Kanazawa.lt was good tO meet Mari-san, whO was a 0 working on the translation, face-to-face.lt was a 0 the first faæ-to-face meeting between me and Kenji Hiranabe-san, and 尾 n, 」 0Y8 better getting t0 know him on this trip. The temples provided an opportunity t0 seek parallels between the practices and mores Ofthe built world and those ofsoftware. On this visitl was wearing my pattem hat, but was seeking more parallels tO software architecture than tO process or organization.l would not be disappointed. One sharp memory 27

43 DCI came out 0f Nordic experience, the brainchild of Trygve Reenskaug. A grey-haired, keen-witted and sometime fiery gentleman, he is no one's image 0fa typicalJapanese person. Yet, more deeply, his insghts 物 into people and their relationships tO machines transænd the usual Westem view of things in terms Of dichotomies. He was about breaking down the dichotomy between mind and machine, inspired by his good friend Doug Engelbart. Maybe the wisdom 0f years polishes 0 幵 something ofwestem upbringing that we dare Ⅱ naiveté. ltis difficult to say this without cultural bias, but there is pemaps a unification 0f petspectives that comes with the experience that age brings tO obsetvant and humble people. My past excoriation Of AOP, as Kakutani-san recalled them, came from its obfuscation Of code, and my cntique of state machines came from their unsuitability t0 the design 0f human-centered scenarios, because 0f the strong link between the FSM paradigm and modaldesgn. The user stories and TDD of Extreme Programming had taught people to focus on the nerd's program perspective rather than that Ofthe end user, and lhad come tO tn,/to leave some balance. Java provided no way for the programmer tO reason about human イ elated sequences that cut across objects, and user stories provided no way tO reason about the data architecture so important to objectoriented programmers. This was a matter Of putting space and time intO a delicate balance ー Of bringing my long-ago-leamed notion of 間 into powerfulsom/are practice. Some facilities of the Ruby programming language made more natural t0 think about software in a "DCI way. " Ruby quickly became my number onelanguage for researching and teaching DCI. ー can't help but think that its Japanese origins played a role in its suitability to such destiny. (ltis my fantasy t0 some day meet Yukihiro Matsumoto. ) は wasn't that the 0 decade had been wrong. Kakutani-san was 同 y recalling my address earlier in the year wherel noted that Alexanders pattems were vety much about events, in spite Ofthe fascination on pattems Of spatial form by the software people. Kakutani-san showed a keen understanding ofthis relationship as he invoked AIexandeds "Nature ofOrded' as one ofthe three ma, 」 or underpinnings 0fthe new decade. Though his talk passed as an entertaining diversion,it was in fact prescent and visionary. He 43

28 作 om that trip was that the first thing the carpenters built was their own t00 豆 perhaps as we should in software. The t00 物 atO 物 e create for us t00 Often are 0 可 y an awkward t0 the task at hand.l found other intriguing practiæs: the temples that they tear down and rebuild evety 20 years at 内宮 and 外宮 (this is the naturalprinciple 0f 侘寂ー why don't we rebuild programs from scratch every few years?); and the loose between stories ofthe towers tO allow them tO safely rattle against each Other in an eafflquake instead Of reinforcing each 0ther t0 topple the tower (loose in software makes 蘿 robust). But pemaps more striking were the conceptual links between the 0 ⅶ 00k 0f these temple-builders and 0f software-builders. TempIes are among theleast utilitarian Of buildings, yet enjoy the highest level Of architecturalattentiveness, or at least Of architectural ceremony. Video games are pemaps the least utilitarian software products but perhaps enjoy the best design. Houses ー which must be architecturally functional and which support the most basic Of Maslow needs ー rarely enjoy more than a commoditized beauty.lt recalls the mundaneness, and sometimes outright ugliness, Of most mission-critical business software. Atthe 002K conference lgave a keynote and a pattem tutorial.ln these talks lrelated the story that Christopher Alexander had t0 旧 me about a night he had gone out drinking with the loca while working on the Eishin Gakuen project inlruma-shi, Saitama prefecture. He met some fOO shuimasters at the bar, and he challenged them about where they should situate the gate for the school, as well as the kitchen. Surprisingly the わ 0 shui masters situated these two constructions at exactly the place Alexander had painstakingly selected. Alexander had tO 旧 me that ifever there was any evidence that something deeper than our senses was at WO 水 in design, that this was a good example.ln my ね唇 0 covered generativity, the broader relationship of pattems tO elements Of the DO KYO, and in recollection made a rather explicitreference t0 what AIexanderwouId several years later call'World System B. This trip led me to reflect openly with the conference audience about whither Japanese culture.ln a ね entitled East meets Westl related 物 a 目 had heard Of Japanese respect for authority, about their teamwod<, and about respect for experienæ. AII Of these aligned well with my WO 水 over the preæding few 28

49 Scrum ー created jointly with Hiranabe-san ー・ actually mentioned the article ー wrote in Dr. D0bb's Joumal that had inspired Jeff Sutherland-san t0 daily meetings int0 Scrum!I think there are several things that Nonaka-sensei finds delightfulin how Scrum has built on his ideas. He mentioned iterative development as an obviously good approach that had eluded him.l think that the idea ofthe daily meeting, where the team continuously updates its WO 水 plan, might be another one ofthese extensions. His slide shows the BorIand paper as being the next step 0f progress towards Scrum after his famous NewNewPt0duct DeveIopment Game article and his Know/edge Cteating Companywork, followed by Jeff Sutherland's first Scrum sprint in 1993 , and a second sprint in 19 that incorporated the ideas from the BorIand paper.ln Aprill would discover an article by Jeff SutherIand that not only confimed this sequenæ, but which accorded the team's hyper-productive potential わ the incorporation 0f the ideas from the Borland paper ・ Fun with Scrum My own talk at the Scrum Gathering would be about ærtification ー the research showing that hasliftle value, serious problems in its implementation, differenæs between Canadian and Japanese aftitudes aboutleaming from evaluation instnuments, and my response tO the ærtification craze ー called Sctum Knowsy. They would probably have run me out oftown on a rail had lgiven this in any Scrum-happy city in the USA, butl think the Japanese just t00k the talk in stride. BattIe There were many more westemers at the Scrum Gathering this year than l've seen around Scrum events in the past.l guess that makes sense, as communty members try tO SUPPOrt these events with their aftendance, and use them as p s tO talk about theirlatest thoughts or ideas. Because ー 49

32 Pattem Languages and on the Nature Of 0 「 de 「 . Linda Rising had a 0 been at MensorePLoP and gave some ね s in the same forum where lpresented back in TOkyo. Pattems were moving ever more in a human direction, bO 物 fO 「 me and for Japan. What had started as a novel way t0 document slightly unconventional technicalsolutions was finding new application in describing the organizationalstructures 0fthe world 0f wo 水 . And a core set 0f people in Japan had started t0 see reflections ofthemselves in the works 0f Christopher AIexander, and his worldview ofwholeness, ofthe natural processes 0f localadaptation 0f piecemealgrowth, and 0f the place 0f feeling in design. Ten-Year Reflections at the Chasm There was a nine-year hiatus before ー would retum tO Japan, in January 2010. The Japanese economy was bad in the 1990S , and though bounæd back somewhat after 2000 , the globalfinancial crisis slowed Japan's in thelatter part Of the decade. 旧 mid -2009 bwo Japanese engineers stumbled across the notes from my "East Meets Wesf' tak at 002K. Their names were Eiiti Hanyuda-san and Hiroshi Nakano-sensei. At this time pattems had again becnme a hOt topic in the Japanese software wo . Excited, these two æntacted my friend Kenji Hiranabe-san whom lhad first met at that event in 2000 」 n KenJi-san wrote t0 me in late August 2009 tO invite me tO give a ten-year anniversary talk in Japan and Takeshi Kakeda-san followed up with a mailin September inviting me t0 Japan f0 「 a ten-year anniversary ね in December. Schedule conflicts caused the date tO pushed t0 the following month. Takeshi-san t00k over the arrangements for the event and, tO increase my appetite fO 「 the visit, said that he would arrange a trip to the famous Eishin Gakuen which Christopher Alexander had built outside TOkyo between 1982 and 1989. 32

54 EpiIog As of this writing lcurrently plan to retum to Japan again in October of this year, and lOOk forward わ increasingly frequent visits in 2014 and beyond. My hope and prayer is t0 continue tO WO 水 with the great people who are watering and nurturing the agile communlty in Japan. My reasons are sometimes a little selfish, because these are greatleaming opportunities for me. ASI write this, the organizationalpattems book is being translated into Japanese by Yukei Wachi and its publication is imminent. lhave heard the great news that Ebacky has become a CST! The Japan market hit 100 yen to the dollar for the first time is years. The problem with over-evaluation Of the yen is sotving itself. Toyo ね is at its peak and the future is bright. l'd challenge the Japanese people to take Scrum and make their own. As the Japanese are good at bringing ideas into their country 作 om abroad and refining them, so you can take the ideas of pattems and Scrum which originated there and bring them back intO the collective consciousness of your workplaæs. Kiro Harada-san has already to 旧 me that some Scrum teams he knows have introduced a day of " 間 " between Sprints ー a time to not wo 水 , to d0 nothing.l think Japanese understand the power of this " ム ". Both for those in the past ⅷ 10 entered my heartin Takayama and Nikko, for those wh0 are lighthouses for the community today, and fo 「 those ⅷ 10 have fallen on their swords,l want to come back. ltis about love and passion for a way 0f life and its further possibilities, about the beauty of the Japanese so 回 and way 0f life, and about doing great things in the wo . Japan canlead the way, andl yeam t0 be part ofthat. Don'tlook t00 far beyond your own shores: " 住めば都 , " Cling to, and pursue, Motohashi-san's vision of 場 . Sp that is my story. Ofcourse, not my story at all. ltis your stoy. A story does not even have to be all true to be good, butl have made this one as tme 54

52 clambering for certification rather than value, for compliance rather than innovation, and for profit rather than hamony and love. Scrum should be a 義 理 . Hope One Of the greatest hono that ever befalls me is tO write a foreword わ a book. Mih0 Nagase-san wrote me in December 2012 and asked me to write the foreword t0 the new bOOk she had worked on together with Ryuzee Yoshiba and Na0tO Nishimura: Sctum BOOt Camp. 忙 very honored. My Japanese 0f course is very weak, but the b00k spoke t0 me in its pictures and in the humility 0 氤 s message.l understood beyond words and enthusiastically wrote the foreword. Miho-san was amazed at how my message had captured their own intent in the bOOk, which made me more p leased. The attitude of this book and of its au 物 0 , and the other agile leaders in Japan ー like my good friends Kawaguchi-san and Harada-san ー give me hO that the Japanese software community may indeed connect strongly with those culturalroots that they deeply share with pattems and with Scn-m. ltis a humble posture, rather than one Of battle or 価 8. That somehow fits my stereotype 0f the dichotomies between Westem and Japanese culture. Yes, Japanese culture a 0 has its politics. As long asl have been traveling tO Japan lhave been able t0 catch occasional glimpses ofthem in spite 0fthe e Japanese attempts tO insulate me from them. AISO during my Januaty 2013 visitto Japan, we did several Scnum courses, one at Rakuten, one at OGIS, and one public one. Yasunobu Kawaguchi-san and Hiroyuilto-san worked with me on the Rakuten e. Hironori Washizaki, Takeshi Kakeda hosted the courses at OGIS. Behind all ofthese courses was Michiaki Taniguchi, my friend 化 om München, whose company had sponsored the events. Washizaki-san, wholalready knew from Mensore PLOP in 2001 , is leading the pattem effortin Japan.l already knew Takeshi-san 作 om the 2010 event and 作 om his interest in DCI, and Hironori-san from his early involvement with the Japan pattem community. 52

46 (from Harada-san,I think) was that 'there is no Kaizen without Hansei. ' Westemets tend to use the word more as a ね deum, with a lot ofenergy and optimism the Japanese way,l would leam, is humility and concem to do the right thing (rather than viewing hansei as punishment). That is the Scrum way. But more deeply, the Japanese "have a deep cultural competence about being in relationship," as B0b StiIger says. This shines through in words like バ and ( " 空気力厩めない " ). BO 物 of these deeply into agile and its notions 0f group identity, Of the importance of knowledge and of anticipation. ltis difficult to express these notions so directly in English because they are not primary concep in most Of its cultures. This is one important signpost of ⅷ 1 ⅵ have such high hopes for agile in Japan. 旧 fact, after 物 class, one of the attendees gave me the highest complimentl think lhave ever received. He to 旧 me: 'You are here to remind us ofwho we a 旧 . " TO me, that is a profound statement, exactly because the deepest parts Of Scrum are those that owe to the Japanese cu 旧 . The ceremonies, the roles, and the artefacts are training wheels to bring people through the gate intO the territony 0f the profound knowledge that was 0n8 the birthright of every Japanese. MOdem times and the creeping Westemization of Japan are every day eroding Japan's f00 物 old on this plateau: a 危 0 物 0 旧 that may be unique in the developed world.l have witnessed the erosion of this footho 旧 even over the fifteen years lhave been coming to Japan. During this visit,l would a 0 ね賑 about how to use organizationalpattems to improve one's Scnum implementation. Organzational Pattems are a key pivot between the pattem world and the agile wo . The pattem community principles ofdignity for pattem au 物 0 ofwholeness and quality, and of pieæmeal growth were an unbelievably natural way to express the mores of the emerging agile movement and its focus on people, of Kaizen mind, and of incrementaland iterative development. 46

could a 0 see another aspect Of a 間 -like unity: a unlty between product and process that he underscored severaltimes in his ね And so was 作 om this time fotward that my focus in Japan would segue 作 om pattems tO Scrum. Scrum seemed tO energize peoples' interest and attention in ways that pattems could not. The pattem ajrnmunlty cnntinues in Japan and shows occasionalbright spots, butl have not immersed myselfin the broader and am no bnger knowledgable about its overall direction. One big factor in my detachment 作 om the community was the disappearance 0f two 0f my cbsest friends from the Japanese software social sæne: Terunobu Fujino and NorikO Kanazawa. Over time, Fujino-san reportedly retreated t0 working in げ outside the crossroads ofdaily T0kY0 business life, and "Nori-chan" has vanished int0 the world 0f Japanese literature.l have not seen either Of them in many years, and ー miss them like ー would miss my right a . AgiIe: The Process Side As tO the process side Of Kakutani-san's vision,l had Sctum in my briefæse with me on this trip. This was myfirst attempt tO teach Scrum in the Japanese market. The link 作 om Kakeda-san through Yasunobu-san eventually passed to Michiaki Taniguchi-san. We were a bit s about him as he seemed to have some business in our neighboring Gemany as well.lt wouldn't be until tWO years later that we would realize thatAgilergo was actually a Geman company and that Yasunobu-san was its Japanese extension at the time. 旧 any case, working with Michiaki-san was ー and stillis ーー a pleasure. He embodies the important aftitudes we h0 旧 for Japanese: humility, practical idealism, æurtesy, and transparency. He has become one Of our most trusted business pattners intemationally and is a key player in ourwork tO support the Japanese market. We a 0 tried tO WO 水 in the Geman market, but found that to be difficult for a variety of reasons. But so much 0f his heatt and focuslay in Japan that we are finding ample oppo n 呼 t0 work together. 44