Aug
23

Agile 2009 Roadmap for Monday and Tuesday

Agile 2009: so many choices, so little time

The moment comes nearer when I have to decide which Agile 2009 sessions I want to attend. With so many sessions, the choice is difficult. So, let’s start by making a shortlist.

Monday

Morning:

Afternoon:

Tuesday

Morning

Afternoon

That’s a lot of options!

Many options means I have many choices to get value for money.

As Portia says: “It’s always better to have more options than too few.”

Choosing is for later. First let’s go see some of Chicago and fulfill some of the acceptance criteria of my “tourist” User Story.

TO make the long trip worthwhile
AS A tourist
I NEED to see or do things that are uniquely of Chicago

Acceptance tests:

  • Have I seen “Nighthawks”?
  • Have I seen one building or exhibition that’s unique for Chicago?
Aug
06

The cost of confusing requirements and solutions

A simple requirement

danger_workaroundsImagine this situation: the CIO of a large company decrees that from now “all applications we develop must be browser based“. This becomes a non-negotiable constraint for every new project.

Unfortunately, a browser platform is not the best platform for all types of applications or all environments. A browser based application may not deliver the best user experience or support intensive workloads. It may be hard (or impossible) to access peripherals. It may be impossible to clearly show complex data sets. And when the network goes down, everybody’s work grinds to a halt.

But all the nice developers and project managers say “Yes boss!” and struggle to find workarounds for these difficulties, to satisfy the users. All of these workarounds make development and maintenance more complex. Users make do with what they receive and add more workarounds to deal with the deficiencies in the applications.

The real requirements

What he really meant was that from now on “all applications we develop must run on a small number of standard environments, be easy to deploy to all our users and centrally managed so that development, release and application support costs stop growing.” What’s the difference between this statement and the previous one? This statement sets a goal and constraints within which creativity can flourish. The first statement stifles creativity and stands in the way of achieving the real goal.

How do we find out what the real goal is? Because someone had the courage to ask “Why?” until it was clear what value we were generating for whom. As the “Discovering Real Business Requirements for Software Project Success” book says:

A requirement describes some value we need to deliver to someone.

Do your “requirements” fit this definition? Why not?

The value of analysis

The difference in value and cost can be staggering. The first statement costs the company lots of money and frustration from everyone who uses, develops and supports hobbled, complex applications. It’s a world of compromises. It doesn’t have to be this way. The second statement gives us a fighting chance to achieve the goals.

All it requires is someone to play the role of analyst to help the customer clearly describe what they need. Someone who acts like a detective to discover the real motives and issues.

A good analyst creates options and keeps them open as long as possible. The “Discovering Real Business Requirements for Software Project Success” book helps to get to the core of the problem. This fits well with a quote from “The Toyota Product Development System: Integrating People, Process and Technology“:

  • Classical product development reduces the number of solutions early.
  • Lean product development reduces the number of problems early and leaves as many solutions available as possible, for example by set-based development or by using tradeoff curves.

Is there someone who has the courage and skill to ask the right questions? Who has the tenacity to dig until they find the real business requirements?

Jul
18

Avoid Change

The thing I hate most about myself is that I don’t want to change

The first XP book was very important for me. It changed the way I work. It changed my life.

I still apply the practices to improve the way I work. The principles have helped me to make my work more fun, sustainable and successful. The values have helped me to do worthwhile work that delivers value.

But “Embrace Change“? I don’t like change.

How to avoid change

I avoid change on my projects by

  • Really understanding the needs of customers, stakeholders and users. Those needs change from time to time, but not very frequently if we really get to the core of what these people value. I get accused of doing Big Upfront Design or Analysis, even in companies seemingly doing Waterfall. Why waste so much time upfront, can’t we start building yet? Customers don’t know what they want anyway, so why try to discover what they need?
  • Not committing to decisions too soon, applying Real Options. If we commit later by delaying decisions to the last responsible moment and gather more information, we need to come back on fewer of our decisions. I do get called a procrastinator. Real leaders take charge, take decisions!
  • By not being distracted by useless technology churn. Simple, reliable and known tools and technology in our toolkit let us concentrate on adding value. I do get called a dinosaur, not up to date with the latest framework or fad du jour. Real geeks only work with the latest 0.1 version of technologies that are so complex that we can spend months unraveling their intricacies (and bugs). I need a well-padded resume with all the latest technologies to get that next job when the shit hits the fan on this job.
  • By making sure we consider supporting processes and users in our value analysis. All too often we focus on the shiny business value generating processes but forget that these can’t work unless people can perform the unglamorous supporting jobs that make these value streams possible. I do get called a Waterfall analyst, who wants to explore every nook and cranny of the system before we can start building. Real Agile teams deliver Business Value, cash quickly. Why waste time with non-business value-adding processes like getting the product into the hands of the user or managing the system to keep it relevant?
  • By making a plan (not a schedule) of the goals we want to achieve in the future so that we have a guiding vision when we travel the path. I do get called an old-school project manager who wants to control and stifle the creativity of his “resources”. You can’t be agile if you have a plan.

Projects with fewer changes are a lot easier and less stressful than those with many changes. These projects implement Heijunka. They deliver value surely and steadily. I like that.

Embrace risk reduction and new information

I welcome any change which reduces risk. We continuously identify our main risks and find ways to avoid them. For example, we discover that there’s simple alternative way of doing something. We can use that as our backup strategy if the planned way of doing the work doesn’t get ready in time. For example, we first implement a very basic implementation of a business process and iteratively refine it, so that we’ll always be ready to release by the deadline. Of course, we have to use that extra time that Real Options gives us to actively seek out information and reduce risk.

Embrace increased flow

I welcome any change which can increase flow, get us to release faster and get the cash flowing sooner. For example, we can start by statisfying a subset of stakeholders and users. We can focus on on value stream at a time. We can mercilessly pare down what is really needed to achieve goals. We can get rid of wasteful checks, approvals and delays. We increase quality to decrease changes due to rework.

Embrace value increase

I welcome a change that increases value. For example, “Exchange Requests” let the customer increase the value of our work. If the customer wants to add a feature to a release, they first have to remove an equivalent amount of work from the release. The customer will only perform the swap if the new feature has more value than the one swapped out. So, for equal (or lower) cost, we deliver a product with higher than initially expected value.

Embrace cost and investment reduction

I welcome a change that reduces cost or investment. I welcome a new, simpler way of achieving a goal. I welcome reducing scope as we discover that we can simplify business processes. I welcome a reduction in “dimension” as we discover that we can satisfy user needs (for now) with less exhaustive or refined implementations. I welcome a way to reduce the amount of work in process.

I’ll get me coat then…

Can I be Agile if I don’t Embrace Change? Can I be Agile if I value people and their interactions AND processes? Can I be Agile if I insist on customer collaboration AND a contract?  Can I be Agile if I only want to respond to beneficial change AND follow a plan? Can I be Agile if working software is not the solution or only a small part of the solution? Can I have my cake AND eat it too?

Where do I go to hand in my Agile badge?

If anybody needs a Waterfall coach, let me know. I can change. I’m agile 😉

May
20

Real Options – One question

How do you see the future?

Like this?

Future 1

Like this?

Future 2

Like this?

Future 3

How would you like to see the future? You can choose.

Freedom Evolves

Apr
13

New Agile Coach site online

Do you want to play?

Portia, Vera and I have published a new version of the Agile Coach website. There you’ll find coaching tools we use like games, tutorials and presentations. Topics range from introductions to Agile (the XP Game, the Business Value Game, XP Loops, First Five Steps to Become Really Agile), Theory of Constraints, Real Options, Toyota Way, Interviewing techniques to Agile Fairytales.

Creative Commons licenseMore materials and translations will be added. All of these games are licensed “Creative Commons“, so that you can use and reuse them. If you want to help translate or improve the games, let us know.

We run retrospectives after each session so that we can improve. You can read the results of the retrospectives on the Past Events page. This transparency allows you to verify if we really take the feedback into account.

Come and play at XP Days

If you want to play the “Business Value Game” or “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall… Why Me?” come and see us at the Mini XP Day Benelux in Mechelen, Belgium (May 11th) or XP Days France in Paris, France (May 25-26th). Or invite us to come and play in your company or usergroup. Or better yet, download the games and play them yourself.

XP Days France