Agile Hype: VanDev Podcast
There is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order-of-magnitude improvement within a decade in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity. – Fred Brooks, from his No Silver Bullet essay
It has been almost 8 years since seventeen men got together in Utah to craft the Agile Manifesto. Since then, depending on who you listen to, agile practices have either totally turned the software industry around, or we are witnessing the latest attempt at defining that silver bullet. Read more
Real Assurance
In almost any field you can imagine, there has been a concerted effort to improve quality by proactively managing the process and systematically eliminating the errors that one would otherwise encounter again and again. I say almost, because even though there is no rocket science behind these techniques, most software organizations still don’t get it, and continue to waste gobs of money and work with massive risks. Read more
Responsibilities
When working in teams, there is always plenty of talk about responsibility and authority. In most teams, people are formed into a hierarchy where there is accountability and responsibility between people that often flows in one direction. My preference is to think of these two items equally shared by all: everyone has responsibility and accountability to themselves, the team, and the project they are collaborating on. Read more
Fables and Legends
One of my favourite diversions from what can otherwise be a ‘death-by-PowerPoint’ event when I facilitate a survey of requirements techniques is the telling of a fable. I take one person aside and read out a one page East Indian fable. That person is to recite the fable to someone else, and so on until everyone in the class has heard it. The last person gets the dubious honour of telling what’s left of the story to the class, and it usually only takes a sentence or two before the group is in stitches. It is the old campfire game (or telephone tag, depending on your childhood experiences), with a moral that applies to how we collaborate. Read more
Rights
It is a common and overused expression that “there is no I in Team”. Implications of this are that when working in a team setting, actions are made based on whether they are good for the team as a whole, rather than for the individual. I often reply that “while this is true, there is an M and an E in Team”. Just as trite a reply, unfortunately, but the intent here is to recognize that decisions are not necessarily boolean in the ‘team’ or ‘me’ dichotomy, that the greatest team actions take into account the rights and needs of the individuals as well as the overall team goals. But even this is insufficient. Read more
