Why Quintessence?

I suspect there are some folks who skip right over Quintessence because it’s not clear why I created the idea (and wrote the book). Just in case you’re one of those folks, here’s a post especially for you. ❤️

Why The Name?

Quintessence is a noun meaning “the most perfect or typical example”. Incidentally, it also means “the fifth and highest element in ancient and medieval philosophy that permeates all nature and is the substance composing the celestial bodies”. It can also mean “the pure and concentrated essence of a substance”.

So I use the name, in context, to indicate the epitome, acme or “very best” of ways in which to deliver software. Aside: I don’t claim to have a monopoly on this understanding. Nor even to fully understand “the best of ways”. Rather, I offer Quintessence as a means for motivated organisations to find their own path to their own manifestation of “Quintessence”.

Why The Idea?

It’s been my life’s work to understand software delivery, and share what I’ve learned with others. This in the hope that fewer people will waste their potential as human beings working in ways that are relatively ineffective and joyless.

Specifically, Quintessence deliberately chooses to avoid instructing people in how to approach software delivery. It’s neither a method, nor a process. Aside: Cognitive science invites us to consider the dysfunctions inherent in people following instructions and advice, in the creation of which they did not directly participate.

So What is Quintessence (the book, the approach)?

For me, it’s a collection of principles seen to be present in highly effective organisations. Principles guiding and shaping the way in which these organisations approach software delivery (amongst other things). And principles guiding and shaping product delivery – that is, the delivery of new product lines into the market – more broadly, btw.

My recent book “Quintessence” (Marshall 2021) contains some seventy different principles, each illuminating just one facet of the whole kaleidoscopic picture that is software delivery within organisations..

I choose to regard “Quintessence” (the book) as a map or blueprint of the highly effective software delivery organisation, expressed as guiding principles, couched as specific assumptions and beliefs. Aside: I’d be amongst the first to admit that very few such organisations exist today.

Why Does Quintessence Upgrade Agile?

I’ve written recently about Quintessence as a long-overdue root-and-branch replacement for Agile.

Agile is now over twenty years old, and for those that have been paying attention, it’s shortcomings have become ever more obvious, and it’s failure rate ever more disheartening.

Leveraging our learnings – more than 27 years of study and learnings, in my case – we can do so much better.

Quintessence is one articulation of what “better” looks like. And indeed what “best that we can currently conceive” looks like.

It’s neither prescriptive, didactic, nor a description of a “future state”. As “the best we can conceive”, Quintessence invites us to embark on a lifelong journey of learning and discovery. Not implement a waystation or fixed state.

– Bob

—Think Different

Making Lives More Wonderful

Why Quintessence?