Tradition is an interesting thing. It’s the way things are. It’s the way things have always been. You go with the flow, because that’s how things are done. You know it as the status quo.
The status quo is a good thing, because tradition is tried and true. Why else would you do things the same way for so long?
Why—that’s the question. And it is a very important question.
Sometimes the answer is a reasonable one: You do it this way, because it has been proven to be the best way.
Unfortunately, the answer is often a self-referencing let-down: It’s always been done this way because this is how it has always been done. In other words, nobody remembers why, so we just carry on the tradition.
Historical Tradition
History is teeming with examples of unchallenged assumptions that often leave us wondering why things are the way they are. You’ve likely heard of some of the more popular ones (although some are controversial).
Typewriters were designed with the QWERTYlayout to prevent jamming when the operator types popular key combinations too quickly. This makes no sense on computer keyboards today, but the layout is still entrenched as the standard.
NASA rockets have design restrictions that have made their shuttles longer and narrower than preferred. This is a strange consequence due to the origin of railway gauge (the spacing between the two tracks), which has a long history of following tradition, dating all the way back to Roman chariots.
My Personal Case Study
About four years ago, my employer decided to replace the custom software solution for our network of dealer-owners. We had a home-grown point-of-sale with an integrated inventory system, which was built from the ground up for our business. However, we needed to replace our product because it used dated technology and required an integrated general ledger.
Bolting on such invasive and fundamental functionality was not ideal, so our business analysts decided it would be better to replace our home-grown solution with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, which we could further customize to fit our needs.
Fast forward to a year later. Our developers and business analysts have been trained on Dynamics NAV development and basic workflows. We are now working alongside some experienced consultants to begin customizing the product. Things are going well and we are picking up velocity.
Then, we realize something isn’t quite right. We are developing a software solution, but we are not using source control.
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