Don’t Open More Barrels Than You Can Consume

Reading time ~ < 1 minute

One of my colleagues is a Theory of Constraints guru so this stuff comes naturally to him but even so, his casual remark on a conference call not long after joining us stuck with the whole team. It’s now a poster next to my desk so that all my drive-by visitors can see his wisdom too.

“Starting more work doesn’t mean you’re going to get any more finished.”

My boss also repeatedly says:

“We need to see a few things 100% complete, not a pile of stuff 80% done”

I have my own pattern for this that I’ll be posting pretty soon – the title might be a bit of a giveaway.

A Decade of What?

Reading time ~ 3 minutes

Ten years since the Agile Manifesto and where are we?

Before I get flamed, much of this article is deliberately tongue-in-cheek but there’s a serious element to it.

Flashback: Chicago 2009.

After an amazing week at my first ever Agile conference I had the privilege to sit in the hotel lobby relaxing & talking shop with a few presenters & attendees.

Although I’ve not made time to catch up with him since; the ~day I spent at Agile 2009 with one of that group of attendees was career-defining. In just a day he taught (or perhaps reminded) me to open my eyes and see the world as it really is – not how it’s marketed to us. This post is inspired by that experience.

During one of many conversations he asked me if I’d read Mordant’s Need.

Being a fan of the Thomas Covenant series  I had secondhand copies of both books in my personal library but had never read them.

Some weeks later I finished the textbooks I’d been working through and switched my bedtime reading to fiction for a while. I picked up “The Mirror of Her Dreams”, blasted through it and moved onto the second book – “A Man Rides Through”.

At some point at about 4AM after yet another bout of insomnia and a reading marathon my mental lights went on.

The entire first book builds up a classic “long con” – a confidence trick drawn out over years – to the detriment of everything else. Incredible.

Now for some fun. Picture this…

SnowyOwl Surf Resort – 2001:  Post-Y2K, the .com bubble is ready to burst,  everyone with half a brain is in software and the consulting gigs are drying up…

Guys. Things aren’t looking so hot for us Cobol developers any more. We need a new cash-cow to milk…

Time passes,  brainstorming happens (with the only thing to hand – those little pads of hotel room stickies)

…well, what are we any good at?

duhhh – Writing software.

OK, that’s a good start but it’s no fun any more – what do we all hate about writing software?

… Maintenance…

…Documentation…

…Management…

…Long isolated hours…

I’ve got it! Let’s take everything we loved about writing software, throw the rest away, package it up and market it back to all the noobie developers as a revolutionary new way of thinking!

Hmm. I think we’re going to need some marketing to pull this one off…

…I have an idea, my buddies at 4N keep complaining nobody except hotels wants to buy stickies any more and they’re gonna be out of work soon. I reckon we can arrange some sort of reciprocal deal.

Sales & Marketing join the team…

So here’s the deal. Marketing to developers is only going to get us so far. We need a top-down approach as well.

…How about we add in project management 101 and package the whole shooting match up into a name that execs will think means better, cheaper and faster.

…Let’s call it “Nimble”.

It’ll be great! I see it now, a pyramid training scheme, conferences, book deals and… oh boy – consulting gigs to die for!

…You know what, this just might work but it’s too easy. We need to throw some stuff into the mix to make it that little bit unreachable for the majority of our marks – keep ’em coming back for more.

While we’re at it, let’s roll in a whole new subset of jargon for extra obfuscation and overlay with some real punchy one-page marketing.

Some years pass…

MickeyWorld 2010 – “Nimble Conference” keynote speech:

…In fact, if Nimble’s not working for you, that’s because You’re doing it wrong.  Donate a million bucks to one of our Gurus and you too will have perfect development projects, products everyone wants and fault-free software.

Here’s the real data from one really successful project to prove how great it is.

Present day – all over the world:  Everyone’s all-in. Despite the vision of a digital paperless office, our stationary budgets have tripled – but don’t the walls look pretty!?

OK, back to reality.

I wouldn’t have things any other way right now. How else would we counteract the incredible momentum of Taylorism and the erosion of good old common sense. Writing software in the 21st century is all about the business, coding is just a fragment of the job.  Gone are the days of a neat idea and a pile of VC funding, so too is the ability to write cool games single-handed at weekends (most of the time).  Here’s how we can make software development fun again. Better still, now we have the tools and support to demonstrate that software teams deliver real business value.

Look beyond the methodology marketing, the processes, the practices, the tools and get back to the root of why we’re doing this. Software is generally a means to an end. Agile, Lean, Scrum, Voodoo, whatever; our goal is to deliver business value to the best of our abilities.

I’ve committed my career to this. I’m having a fantastic time. Much of what I’m seeing in the agile & lean community is great but for large-scale enterprise software product development and large corporations it still is very hard work to make this stuff stick.

I don’t plan on giving up any time soon.

Creative Freedom & Product Ownership

Reading time ~ 2 minutes

After nearly 2 years of blogging internally for my employer and building up an internal online community readership of nearly a thousand subscribers, I’ve been looking forward to getting my voice to the outside world. I have a lot to say, opinions on most things in the software industry and enjoy sharing.

Having made the personal commitment and investment to do so, I find that 2 days later the words are all there but can’t find form. Where’s all the inspiration that caused me to do this gone?

I know my intended audience, I know the sort of things I usually write about are interesting, I have complete creative control and no real constraints on what I can and can’t say for the first time in years! What happened?

Complete creative control with no constraints?… Oh!…

Complete creative control makes life harder, not easier!

When you move to an environment where you are both delivery team and product owner, how do you go about putting some of the safety rails back up to get back on track and delivering successfully?

Whilst over in the US last week I saw a biography on “Pink” –  I’ve just learned a great lesson from her experiences.

Creative control for Pink’s first album was governed by her record company and whilst very successful, she sought a greater say in her future output.

For her second album, Pink contacted an artist she greatly admired and against the wishes of her record company, developed an album of new material on her own terms. In developing the album she had a clear goal and vision; pair up with a personal heroine, take control and prove she could deliver.  Pink broke the rules and had something to fight for.

On hearing the output, record bosses conceded she’s achieved something special and the album was a massive global success. Following its success her songwriting partner saw a huge surge in demand for her skills and Pink was given complete creative freedom and trust for her next album. – She’d massively over-achieved her goal.

Album#3 didn’t go so well. Her partner was no longer available, complete control was hers but there was no focus. Development was a strained, long process and whilst it did eventually ship, sales performance was generally poor.

Does this sound familiar?

Needless to say Pink’s output did recover.  Now I’ve found my voice I need to re-check both my original vision and my constraints.

After mentioning that I was about to write this post, a good friend and colleague sent me a link to this old business week article from the VP of Google’s search products. It frames the whole constraint thing better than I can – well worth a read.

Ahoy!

Reading time ~ < 1 minute

Ahoy Me Hearties!

Having mortgaged my soul to Davey Jones’ BBC Model B long before the dot com Boom & Bust, the Millenium Bug, the introduction of the Euro and the demise of Altavista; 2011 is the 15th year of my commercial softwarefaring exploits and roughly the 25th year since my voyaging began in Basic with Usborne books, the “Welcome Tape” and early forays into the online ocean via Prestel.

Herewith begins my testimony of daring exploits, shores travelled, cultures & rituals observed and occasional ramblings associated with bad bread.

Before I commence it is important to clarify that these musings represent a manifestation of my inner monologue and must not be associated with those of any of my current or past employers.

With this short introduction, I bid you good day.

C