Transitioning to Agile: Step 1 | Learn the “Shu - Ha – Ri” Journey

The basis of all Agile Methodologies is the principle of Adptation – the ability to adjust to change. Being Agile is about learning from the experience and improving based on the same. It is a simple and continuous process of learning and improvement. And as that of any Learning Process, transitioning to Agile follows steps of Shu, Ha, Ri.


Dr. Alistair Cockburn explains this very nicely in his video on “I am here to burry Agile”. As he explains it, the learning is a three step process. Human behavior is to resist a change. To break the shackles of the comfort zone and accept new challenge requires a specific mindset (of which I will talk separately in another blog), which in particular is hard to find. And this exactly is the thing that we need to attack when it comes to transitioning to Agile.


The process of learning is rather progressive one than the aggressive. The progressive learning goes through a defined structure of knowledge capturing, improving and excelling. Alistair puts it using the Japanese terms Shu, Ha and Ri.


“Shu” is the state where we learn something new. The mind is open for ideas and we only focus on capturing the knowledge. We learn by books and practice as stated. The boundaries of curiosity are narrow and focused on what we see. It is a state where the mind is accepting the change.


Once the change is set, we move into the “Ha” state, where what we learn is not sufficient. The curiosity kicks in hard and the mind looks for additional sources and ways of information. Everything adds to what we have learnt so far. This is the state where we want to Explore ideas. The success and failure of experiments add to and enriches the knowledge.


Then comes the “Ri” state where the mind questions what we know. It challenges us to excel and put the excellence to test. The knowledge from various sources and the experience from various experiments forces the new definitions of knowledge. We tend to build new stuff using what we know and learn from it. The “Ri” state brings in invention to what we have learnt in “Shu” state and what we had excelled in “Ha” state.


I put this as the 3Es – Experiment, Explore and Excel. “Knowledge of Application” and “Application of Knowledge” is another way to put the same. “Knowledge of Application” is where we learn about the stuff – the Shu and Ha phase, where as “Application of Knowledge” is putting the knowledge to test which is the later of Ha and Ri phase.