Crystal Methods

Crystal 'methods' was created by Alistair Cockburn and a group of sixteen other software engineers in 2001.

The system comprises a specific group of methodologies, techniques and policies (methods) empirically observed in successful teams which did not use formal methodologies. These methods focus on the virtues of Agile development. i.e. low documentation, high levels of team interaction and group decision making, short iteration cycle times; low levels of assumption and guess work.

The system requires that methods are selected from those available according to the number of people working on a project and its criticality. The idea is that a bespoke process is created for each team and project rather than adopting a one size fits all approach.

To assist in this process Cockburn provides a grid where criticality is down the side and team size across the top. Each team size (column) is represented by a crystal colour.

The critically of the project decreases in each successive row of the grid. Live means critical to the survival of the organization and comfort means no direct financial benefit expected.

Their is no strict definition of what methods go in what cells. Instead there guidelines and some examples. The idea is that the discussion about appropriate methods is itself a crucial part of the project start-up and should not be left to mere formula.

Cockburn bases his methods on 4 assumptions about people

“People are communicating beings, doing best face-to-face, in person, with real-time question and answer.”
“People have trouble acting consistently over time.”
“People are highly variable, varying from day to day and place to place.”
“People generally want to be good citizens, are good at looking around, taking initiative, and doing ‘whatever is needed’ to get the project to work.”