It Depends and Everything Is Optional
Author: Jurgen Appelo
It is best to eat soup with a spoon.
Unless you want to eat the noodles, then I suggest chopsticks.
It is widely accepted that there is no such thing as best practices. Practices can only be "currently best known in context". They can be right now the best thing to do in a specific situation until someone finds a better way or until the situation changes.
For precisely this reason, I'm not a big fan of frameworks. These are some definitions of the word framework:
a supporting structure around which something can be built
a system of rules, ideas, or beliefs that is used to plan or decide something
a basic conceptional structure (as of ideas)
a skeletal structure designed to support or enclose something.
a frame or structure composed of parts fitted and joined together.
Most definitions of the word framework suggest an essential, minimal structure. A building is constructed on top of and around a framework of metal and concrete; practicing Law is impossible without a Constitution or some legal framework, and I'm not able to write books and blog posts without the framework that we call natural language. In each case, the framework is the essential, minimal structure. The framework is the enabler. You can't start building without the framework.
This makes the unFIX model not a framework. There are many ways to design organizations, and unFIX does not mandate or enforce any particular structure. All practices are optional. There is no essential, minimal structure, which means that unFIX is quite different from SAFe, Holacracy, and other methods and models. (The smallest version of the Scaled Agile Framework is literally called Essential SAFe. And you're not doing Holacracy if you don't follow its Constitution.)
It might be better to describe the unFIX model as a pattern language, somewhat similar to the famous architectural patterns discussed by architect Christopher Alexander. You can create buildings and towns without using any of the described patterns. Everything is optional. However, things will generally be nicer and better when you consider and apply some of those good practices in your architectures, as long as you realize that the patterns are only "currently best known in context".
It Depends and Everything Is Optional
Good consultants and coaches already know this, of course. They understand that things go wrong when people dogmatically interpret agile frameworks as essential, minimal structures (as the definition of the word itself suggests!). It might be better if agile frameworks were decomposed into pattern libraries, similar to unFIX. It all depends on context, and everything is optional.
Note: We offer rules/constraints for the patterns so that IF you choose to use a pattern, you should take into account HOW the pattern is used correctly.
You can slurp the soup and the noodles directly from the bowl. You can also use a straw, a teaspoon, or even a fork. But it might take you a bit longer to finish your soup.
I recommend the spoon and the chopsticks.
