Beyond Legacy Code

Shu-Ha-Ri

Mastery involves more than skill and ability. The Japanese martial art Aikido defines three stages of mastery: Shu, Ha, and Ri.

Shu is the form, the explicit knowledge. “Wax-on, wax-off” from the movie The Karate Kid is an example of the Shu stage of learning. Daniel, the young disciple in that movie, was told to wax cars with a circular movement. He wasn’t told why or how it would prepare him to reach his goals. Once he mastered the form he was shown why.

Often, people learn Agile as a set of rules, as do’s and don’ts. That is just the first stage of learning, yet many people feel that once they learn some rules they’re ready to do Agile.

But complex activities, like developing software, are hard to pin down with rules. There’s ...