Agility and Project Leadership

Yes, we all know andYes, we all know and love the Agile principle of “responding to change over following a plan”, but have some Agile adopters taken this notion too far? It could be that the promotion of the flexibility cause both teams, stakeholders and customers to expect and demand too much flexibility which causes too many and difficult to manage changes leading to project delays, quality problems and teams that had difficulty delivering value.

Yes, we all know and love the Agile principle of “responding to change over following a plan”, but have some Agile adopters taken this notion too far? It could be that the promotion of the flexibility of the method is what causes both teams, stakeholders and customers to expect and demand too much flexibility. This causes too many and difficult to manage changes leading to project delays, quality problems and teams that had difficulty delivering value.

Is Agile too flexible for its own good?

In this article by Lajos Moczar in CIO magazine, he thinks the whole method is flawed:

Much of agile's success is due to the fact that it "sells" so well by promising solutions to perennial IT concerns: projects that run over budget and time, lack of team effectiveness, lack of true collaboration, poor product quality and dissatisfied customers.

I've been involved in a number of agile projects from all perspectives, as a team member, leader architect and overall responsible manager. I've concluded that agile has not only failed like other fad methodologies before it but, in fact, is making things worse in IT. Yes, there are certain occasions when agile does work, particularly for proof of concept (POC) work involving already well-integrated teams, but I'm talking about 80 percent of projects here…

In theory, developers code while collaborating with stakeholders to define, refine and change requirements as the projects goes along. The methodology, however, does not distinguish between big and small changes. Every change has a cost, but agile does not account for this. The result? People often change really big things late in the game using the rationale that since it's an agile project, it can handle it. The only way the project can handle this is by adding iterations. As that happens, defects that might have been easy to fix at one point get harder and harder to fix, since the code base keeps changing.

From my perspective, it isn’t so much that Agile is too flexible, but rather that people are too flexible in their use of Agile. I think the real flaw is to blame the method for being flawed due to misuse, rather than one’s misuse as being the flaw that causes flawed results. For example, it’s like blaming a hammer for being a flawed tool because you tried to use it to hammer a screw into a wall, rather than admitting that your flawed use of the hammer is what cause screw to damage the wall.

I think this is a common fallacy since it’s easy to blame the tool rather than to blame yourself. What do you think?

I think this is a common fallacy since it’s easy to blame the tool rather than to blame yourself. What do you think? love the Agile principle of “responding to change over following a plan”, but have some Agile adopters taken this notion too far? It could be that the promotion of the flexibility cause both teams, stakeholders and customers to expect and demand too much flexibility which causes too many and difficult to manage changes leading to project delays, quality problems and teams that had difficulty delivering value.

Is Agile too flexible for its own good?

In this article by Lajos Moczar in CIO magazine, he thinks the whole method is flawed:

Much of agile's success is due to the fact that it "sells" so well by promising solutions to perennial IT concerns: projects that run over budget and time, lack of team effectiveness, lack of true collaboration, poor product quality and dissatisfied customers.

I've been involved in a number of agile projects from all perspectives, as a team member, leader architect and overall responsible manager. I've concluded that agile has not only failed like other fad methodologies before it but, in fact, is making things worse in IT. Yes, there are certain occasions when agile does work, particularly for proof of concept (POC) work involving already well-integrated teams, but I'm talking about 80 percent of projects here…

In theory, developers code while collaborating with stakeholders to define, refine and change requirements as the projects goes along. The methodology, however, does not distinguish between big and small changes. Every change has a cost, but agile does not account for this. The result? People often change really big things late in the game using the rationale that since it's an agile project, it can handle it. The only way the project can handle this is by adding iterations. As that happens, defects that might have been easy to fix at one point get harder and harder to fix, since the code base keeps changing.

From my perspective, it isn’t so much that Agile is too flexible, but rather that people are too flexible in their use of Agile. I think the real flaw is to blame the method for being flawed due to misuse, rather than one’s misuse as being the flaw that causes flawed results. For example, it’s like blaming a hammer for being a flawed tool because you tried to use it to hammer a screw into a wall, rather than admitting that your flawed use of the hammer is what cause screw to damage the wall.

I think this is a common fallacy since it’s easy to blame the tool rather than to blame yourself. What do you think?

There’s no doubt that Scrum has becomeThere’s no doubt that Scrum has become the most popular of Agile methods for software development and other projects, but if we step back a moment, we have to sometimes realize that it is a lightweight “framework” for managing projects, whereas Agile as outlined in the Agile Manifesto is a set of “values”.

There’s no doubt that Scrum has become the most popular of Agile methods for software development and other projects, but if we step back a moment, we have to sometimes realize that it is only a lightweight “framework” for managing projects, whereas Agile as outlined in the Agile Manifesto is a set of “values”. It is your responsibility to align the use of Scrum with the Agile values.

With this being the case, I’m getting lots of anecdotal evidence that Scrum is becoming within the industry the very evil it was to overcome. Namely, a rigid command and control process that enforces a mechanistic adherence to iterations, ceremonies and artifacts. Examples would be a rigid conformance of spring planning models that must follow specific ceremonies, maintaining who controls and manages the backlog, and how Sprints should be deployed (or rudely “pushed” out).

This rigid robot like mindset is quite antithetical to the values and sprit of Agile, but with the commercial success of a method like Scrum and it’s widespread adoption both within its software development roots and outside it, there seems to be a growing trend of a more dogmatic, stifling and stale version of Scrum that is permeating the industry.

Like I mentioned, I don’t have lots of data either quantitative or qualitative to back this up, but it is a sentiment that seems to be growing and shared amongst those who for the most part feel that Scrum was pushed down on them because someone heard it was a popular Agile method.

Am I right or wrong? I’d like to know what you think!

Am I right or wrong? I’d like to know what you think! the most popular of Agile methods for software development and other projects, but if we step back a moment, we have to sometimes realize that it is a lightweight “framework” for managing projects, whereas Agile as outlined in the Agile Manifesto is a set of “values”.

With this being the case, I’m getting lots of anecdotal evidence that Scrum is becoming within the industry the very evil it was to overcome. Namely, a rigid command and control process that enforces a mechanistic adherence to iterations, ceremonies and artifacts. Examples would be a rigid conformance of spring planning models that must follow specific ceremonies, maintaining who controls and manages the backlog, and how Sprints should be deployed (or rudely “pushed” out).

This rigid robot like mindset is quite antithetical to the values and sprit of Agile, but with the commercial success of a method like Scrum and it’s widespread adoption both within its software development roots and outside it, there seems to be a growing trend of a more dogmatic, stifling and stale Scrum that is permeating the industry.

Like I mentioned, I don’t have lots of data either quantitative or qualitative to back this up, but it is a sentiment that seems to be growing and shared amongst those who for the most part feel that Scrum was pushed down on them because someone heard it was a popular Agile method.

Am I right or wrong? I’d like to know what you think!

I like this post from Johanna Rothman about using Kanban to plan out your next job hunt. As she states, finding a job can be quite a complex undertaking:

A job hunt is a big and complex project. You need to decide what to do and when. Who do you interview with? Is it time to iterate on your resume? Do you have enough references? Are you networking “right”? Add the fact that your emotional well-being is affected by your search, and—well, it’s a recipe for low self esteem.

One way to manage this complex project is to use a project management approach that fits the problem. The best way I know is to use personal kanban. Personal kanban allows you to take everything out of your head, get it down on sticky notes so you have the transparency, and then see it move across the board to get to done. You have a way to limit the work in progress and a way to corral those call-backs with the Pen.

As she discusses, its about using the tool to manage that complexity by prioritizing those WIPs that are the most efficient AND effective for your job search. And as the graphic from her example shows, no need for fancy dashboards, just write this down on your job search notebook.

For those job seekers out there, what tools from your PM toolkit either from Agile or traditional are you using to land your next dream job?

A job hunt is a big and complex project. You need to decide what to do and when. Who do you interview with? Is it time to iterate on your resume? Do you have enough references? Are you networking “right”? Add the fact that your emotional well-being is affected by your search, and—well, it’s a recipe for low self esteem.

One way to manage this complex project is to use a project management approach that fits the problem. The best way I know is to use personal kanban. Personal kanban allows you to take everything out of your head, get it down on sticky notes so you have the transparency, and then see it move across the board to get to done. You have a way to limit the work in progress and a way to corral those call-backs with the Pen.

A job hunt is a big and complex project. You need to decide what to do and when. Who do you interview with? Is it time to iterate on your resume? Do you have enough references? Are you networking “right”? Add the fact that your emotional well-being is affected by your search, and—well, it’s a recipe for low self esteem.

One way to manage this complex project is to use a project management approach that fits the problem. The best way I know is to use personal kanban. Personal kanban allows you to take everything out of your head, get it down on sticky notes so you have the transparency, and then see it move across the board to get to done. You have a way to limit the work in progress and a way to corral those call-backs with the Pen.

Here's a great inforgraphic provided by toolsforagile.com outlining the ingredients required to make your Kanban implementation delightfully tasty:

Apparently so, as this article from FCW titled “USPS goes all-in on agile development” indicates that the US Post Office has “one of the largest and most complex in the world, and its growing preference for agile software development methods over its old-school waterfall methodology is having a positive effect on both the agency's bottom line and the mailing industry as a whole.”

Started in 2010, they launched Agile as the replacement model for their existing waterfall methodology in four major distribution centers. One of the major pilot projects was the Mail Transport Equipment Online Ordering System (MTEOR) that “allows mailers to order and track mail transport equipment (MTE) online, such as the sacks, trays, pallets and wheel containers that contain mail in transit between facilities.” Looks like by adopting Agile, they were able to achieve some significant results such as a 90% reduction in phone calls to their support center and cost reductions.

Due to this, the USPS has now set a policy to do Agile for all IT development projects:

Agile software development methodologies and best practices – Scrum, Scrumban, software engineering best practices and the like – are now applied to most every project within USPS' IT shop, Edgar said. In fact, USPS IT has delivered more than 50 projects through agile development methodologies, and 25 projects are currently active. Design teams work with customers "almost daily," and communication between parties is integral to a project's success.

So many project successes just three years into USPS' five-year agile adoption strategy roadmap helped spur the agency in March to declare that the agile development methodology will be the standard methodology for all projects unless an exception request is approved.

So in a sense, the USPS is going Agile to avoid “going postal” with launching software development projects and I would think that would be a good thing.

Agility and Project Leadership

About this Blog

RSS

Recent Posts

Categories

Date

Is Agile too flexible for its own good?

When Scrum becomes the very evil it was to overcome

Get that job using Kanban!

A tasty concoction of Kanban

Is Agile going postal on us?

Agility and Project Leadership

Recent Posts

Categories

Date

Sponsors

Vendor Events

Newsletters