With exercises, too!

Wish I’d been there…

One comment that that resonated with me stressed how important it is to characterize changes differently from actual bugs. Having the Product Owner tell you “We forgot about X” does not actually mean that a bug has crawled into the system.

A few take-aways (I’m paraphrasing, forgive me if this isn’t exact but you’ll get the gist):

• Agile doesn’t stop you making mistakes, but it does let you identify the mistakes earlier…then then (hopefully) you can take appropriate and effective action
• Your Product Owner needs to be able to make real decisions (otherwise you’ll suffer looong delays, which warps planning and results in low velocity)
• The relationship between Product Owner and ScrumMaster is very important
• Analysts should run only one sprint ahead or the developers, otherwise everyone’s heads are in different ’spaces’
• Work with your Product Owner (and stakeholders) early and often
• When interfacing with other (waterfall/non-Agile) groups, treat their needs as high priority
• Poor information radiation can lead to problems
• Planning Poker works. Nicely.
• Don’t focus on showcases…this is a sure way to build up technical debt!

The key takeway:

• Your “Definition of Done” has a far-reaching effect, so spend time on formulating and reviewing it

Thanks, James!

I just attended Brisbane CITCON 2009.

To my surprise, I greatly enjoyed the event. Thanks to all concerned!

I said ’surprise’: this is the first OpenSpace event I have ever been to. I expected (with a smidgin of dread) a Gen-Y look-at-me-aren’t-I-clever-don’t-tell-me-things-I-don’t-already-know ego-fest. I found a group of passionate (mostly non-Gen-Y, it has to be said) cluey developers getting together to show&tell and discuss real issues, problems and solutions.

A couple of piccys. The first is of the collaboratively-produced topic board/conference schedule:

Living proof that the agile concept of “no centralised control” can work…

The second piccy is of the illustrious Dr. Paul King of ASERT, in his presentation groove(y):

And no conference could possibly be complete without a T-shirt:

There’s a Flickr page.

For some reason, I had expected a Ruby love-in. I had expected to hear the fanboys raving about how Ruby was innovatively solving the problems of testing and CI. Half of me had been hoping to see/hear this. There was some nice stuff about Watir but nothing that changed my world-view (I’m actually a little disappointed…it’s A Good Thing to have one’s world-view shaken up a bit every now and then ;-)).

I confess to being a little surprised to not hearing a Hudson buzz; IMHO it’s an excellent CI server. I was unsurprised to be hearing a Git buzz…confirmed my opinion that this is the Next Big Thing in Version Control. I was quite surprised when a “hands up” survey asking “who knows about JMeter” failed to elicit more than a couple of hands in the air…wake up people!

In (sad) contrast to the Oracle Free Breakfast Session I had attended a few days previous, this free event was worth far more than I paid!

In summary: an excellent event. Recommended.

[edit]
Can you see me?

When Working Software Is Not Enough: A Story of Project Failure, presented by Mitch Lacey.

Sigh. So depressing.

Maybe having an Agile Maturity Model is actually A Good Idea.

“You’ll Never Be A Good Agile Developer!” came the immediate pronouncement.

Take that! Put me in my place!

Apparently, in the mind of this young guru, mastery of every keyboard shortcut of an editor (although which particular editor this person had in mind remained unspecified. He’s a Ruby fanboy I believe, so I’m guessing that it would be something Mac-ish) was a prerequisite for agile development.

After a while, the conversation changed tack and this intense young thing–bemoaning the overall state of the I.T.world–pronounced that it would probably be better if he went back to Uni. and completed his Arts Degree.

Stepping back through the mirror, I thought it would be fun to think about all the editors that I have failed to adequately exercise over the years.

Ignoring non developer-oriented things like Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker, and oddities like runoff/[nt]roff/TeX and even odder things like Literate Programming’s tangle/weave I came up with this:

(there are others…I’m pretty sure that the Simula 67 system I used for a while had a weird development ‘environment’ that I didn’t really delve into; ditto for the eiffel system I used…)

Given all this, it is patently obvious that I’ll never be A Good Agile Developer, but let’s remember the Agile Manifesto, which states (in part):

…we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools…

I get the feeling that Kanban is growing in appeal; perhaps it is the “newness factor”, perhaps it is the idea of constant motion that is appealing (after all, Scrum/XP have all these “stop and have a talkfest” points built in…I can see how managment might be nervous about that [the words “closed shop” spring to mind ;-)])

…Language directly influences thinking and perception. Syntax that is consistently direct encourages responsibility and clear thinking. Indirect forms of syntax can often obscure the subject and encourage the dodging of direct responsibility…

SVO-p stands for Subject-Verb-Object, Present Tense…

SVO-p discourages “passive voice”. Passive forms tend to conceal the subject and avoid responsibility. This is a problem because of a much higher likelihood that the receiver of the message may misunderstand the statement. The use of active voice in the present tense supports immediate action in the present moment. The subject-verb-object form tends to support direct and clearly articulated responsibility.

NewSpeak for Scrum?

Let’s try the technique out…

Instead of:
“It has been noticed that this project’s progress is sub-par with respect to time and money.”
Use:
“This Project Is Sucking Badly.”

Instead of:
“Remuneration continues to be less than optimal.”
Use:
“I Need To Put Up My Contract Rates.”

Hey! This SVO-p thing works!

:-)

The BBRT is an international shared learning network of member organizations with a common interest in transforming their management models to enable sustained, superior performance. BBRT helps organizations learn from world-wide best practice studies and encourages them to share information, past successes and implementation experiences to move beyond command and control.

The BBRT promotes a set of principles that lead to more dynamic processes and front-line accountability. Organizations that follow this approach transform their management model in line with these principles, which are outlined in Beyond Budgeting: How Managers Can Break Free from the Annual Performance Trap, published by Harvard Business School Press.

The BBRT is at the heart of a new movement that is searching for ways to build lean, adaptive and ethical enterprises that can sustain superior competitive performance. Its aim is to spread the idea through a vibrant community.

In the software world, we are beginning to see how destructive BDUF is, so it is nice to see that the suits actually are thinking about how destructive the current practice of Big Yearly Budget Up Front is.

It has never failed to amaze me that as one approaches the end of a financial year, projects get put on hold or cancelled merely because their allocated-up-front-big-bang-style budget was out of whack with a changing reality while–at the exact same time–groups go around buying crazy stuff just to use up their other pots of cash “in case it gets taken away next year.”

There is a nice Learning Byte available (courtesy of Business Sculptors; hope I’m not breaking any copyright or “deep linking” rules…).

This goes a teeny, tiny way toward making me feel less cynical abut Agile (for large organisations, that is); who know, maybe it could be possible to get HR and Facilities Managment and the Unions (and…) on board ;-)