A reminder
This is part of a semi-serious series of words that should be removed from the agile lexicon. Follow the links below for earlier entries.
The only f-word I won’t say: Agile swear words part 1
Commitment-phobia: Agile swear words part 2
My vendetta against the v-word: Agile swear words part 3
Grooming
Grooming. It’s just a terrible word. Creepy.
Maybe at one time, it conjured up images of Victorian stable boys and horses, though now I think about it, that’s probably just as troublesome as its modern connotations. How did an entire industry land upon ‘grooming’ as an idea and not see the problems? How does it endure?
Better alternatives are available. ‘Ready for Refinement’ looks a lot better as a Jira status and makes my flesh crawl a lot less than ‘Needs Grooming.’ At one place I worked, we used the term ‘distillation,’ which I still have a lot of time for, suggesting as it does purifying the essence of what’s needed.
It’s time to jilt grooming. Life’s too short to shudder every time you have to go to this particular agile ceremony.