(noun) The combination of different beliefs, practices, or systems of thought into a unified whole, often resulting in a hybrid approach that incorporates elements from multiple sources.

The team’s development methodology was pure syncretism, blending Agile sprints with waterfall documentation requirements and lean startup experimentation.

In software engineering, syncretism manifests when teams cherry-pick practices from various methodologies without considering their underlying philosophical conflicts. While this can create pragmatic solutions, it often leads to inconsistent processes that satisfy no particular approach completely.

Examples:

• Adopting Agile ceremonies while maintaining traditional project management hierarchies
• Returning 200 responses with an error
• ORM
• Mixing exceptions and return codes for error handling