Opportunistic Agile

I recently came across Martin Fowler’s article on “Opportunistic Refactoring”:

If you don't spend time on taking your opportunities to refactor, then the code base gradually degrades and you're faced with slower progress and difficult conversations with sponsors about refactoring iterations.
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From the beginning I've always seen refactoring as something you do continuously, as regular and indivisible a part of programming as typing if statements.

This made me think back on all the times I’ve blogged about this spirit of doing things opportunistically in the process of developing software.

From Opportunistic Programming, to the Boy Scout Rule, and If You Can Lean You Can Clean, I see a common thread.

The “just-in-time” spirit of Agile is opportunistic. Doing things when they’re needed, not before, not after. And capitalizing on the bits of value that are in front of you right now.