The existential joys of agile practice: people over process

At Agile NYC I presented a pecha kucha. 20 slides. 20 seconds per slide. This is the third of four parts.

People over process

Cathleen P. Black, who took over as New York City schools chancellor in January, at the Tuesday meeting of the Panel on Educational Policy.

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Cathie Black was Chancellor of New York City Schools for three months. She was hired despite having no education experience and no affinity for public schools, parents, teachers and students because she was, “an excellent manager”.

I love that agile doesn’t celebrate management. It relies on individual contributors. It relies on community.

painting by Eiko JudyThe oozy failure wrapped in the chocolatey success of agile is when we focus on process mechanics and lose sight of people.

If we do, our practice becomes arbitrary and abstract.

There’s a study that claims the best and worst performers have more in common with each other than those in the broad middle.

NYC Lego First PitsWhile the best are energized by their caring and use that passion to drive to the best outcomes, the worst are demoralized and ruined by it.

The indifferent middle, they just plug away.

When we impose a process upon a workplace to avoid failure. We rob the best performers of opportunities to engage and care.

Sunset Big IslandWe preclude the best in an attempt to avoid the worst and ensure mediocrity.

I acknowledge that successful products can emerge from awful workplaces. And that that good teams often create failed products.

But working in a way that tears down talented people’s desire for work is tragic. To repeatedly do this this is to sap the world of its limited supply inspiration, creativity and joy.

The existential joys of agile practice: I want to live in our imperfect reality

At Agile NYC I presented a pecha kucha. 20 slides. 20 seconds per slide. This is the second of four parts.

I want to live in our imperfect reality

Extreme beyond this pointAs agile becomes popular it becomes a buzzword. It gets promoted as a tool that solves problems when at its heart it is a set of values that encourage you to confront problems.

We should all recognize these organizing principles…

  • Collaboration over negotiation
  • Working software over specification
  • People over process
  • Responding to change over following a plan

In addition, Bob Martin’s “Quality over crap”

Worship the plan. The plan is good.Let’s talk about following a plan… worshipping a plan

I think of this every time I think of worshipping a plan…

A driver put her faith in her satellite navigation system. It told her to turn onto a bridge. Problem was the bridge had been washed away. She drove her $160,000 Mercedes into the flood where it was swept away. She had to be rescued as it sank.

black holeWhere the customer doesn’t entirely know what will succeed… Where they aren’t entirely steeped in the technology…

Specifications become a black hole so dense with detail that even light cannot escape.

Project schedules become the most boring fairy tails ever told.

Mocks mock us.

dandelionAnd process gates (“handoffs”) kill collaboration.

We put a lot of energy into delivering the wrong thing on time and on budget.

And we don’t even recognize or care about that thing by the time it goes live – if it ever does.

walk don't walkI want to live in our imperfect reality.

…Focus on what I did, what I’m doing and what I want to do next.

I want to know what we are trying to achieve and converse with people I’m achieving it with.

Dart arrows missing targetI accept failure if we call it out as we recognize it, applaud the attempt and make changes so that we don’t repeat that exact failure again.

In short, I love an iterative, reflective way of working because I dearly want to spend each day doing a little less crap and a little more not crap than the day before.

And I want to do it without simply handing off my crap onto others.

The existential joys of agile practice

  1. A family tradition of care and craft
  2. I want to live in our imperfect reality
  3. People over process
  4. Angel on your shoulder

Focus on cross-organizational dynamics, pathologies and development (agile adoption)

I agree with the conclusion of israelgat’s post on Agile Manager, Persona of the Agile Team:

If the spread of Agile in your company has stalled, providing qualitative and quantitative data on the benefits of Agile might not be the best way to win over support for broader adoption. Instead of hard sell of Agile benefits, focus on cross-organizational dynamics, pathologies and development.

Nine software development aphorisms (that are sometimes true)

  • Beneficial change results from cycles of learning, doing and self-reflection.
  • Success derives from delivering small things of value regularly and often.
  • A discreet piece of work is either done or it is not done.
  • Better to risk a bad decision than make no decision at all.
  • The wisest decision is made just before it can be most efficiently acted upon and no earlier.
  • Most features will receive little or no use. 60% of what you want is better than 100%.
  • Plans document one scenario that will not happen and describe some other application than the one that was built.
  • On time and on budget are not synonyms for success.
  • In human endeavor, every enlightening truth contains a lie. The road to hell is paved with…