Agile Illustrated – Sample #1
October 09, 2019
Over the next few weeks, I will be featuring samples from my new Kindle book “Agile Illustrated: A Visual Learner’s Guide to Agility”. The book is a graphical introduction to the agile mindset and servant leadership behaviors for supporting agile teams.
Let’s start with the Agile Manifesto:
The Agile Manifesto was created during a meeting in February 2001 that brought together a number of software and methodology experts who were at the forefront of the emerging agile methods. Let’s look at the values one by one.
Value 1 – Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools
While processes and tools will likely be necessary, we should try to focus attention on the individuals and interactions involved. This is because work is undertaken by people, not tools, and problems get solved by people, not processes. Likewise, products are accepted by people, scope is debated by people, and the definition of a successfully “done” project is negotiated by people.
What will help set up a project for success is an early focus on developing the individuals involved and an emphasis on productive and effective interactions. Processes and tools can help, yet projects are ultimately about people. So, to be successful, we need to spend the majority of our time in what may be the less comfortable, messy, and unpredictable world of people.
Value 2 – Working software over comprehensive documentation
This value speaks to the need to deliver. It reminds us to focus on the purpose or business value we’re trying to deliver, rather than on paperwork.
Many developers are detail-oriented and process-driven. While these characteristics are often highly beneficial, they can also mean the developer’s focus is easily distracted from the real reason they are undertaking software projects—to write valuable software. So, this emphasis on valuing working software over comprehensive documentation acts as a useful reminder of why these projects are commissioned in the first place—to build something useful. Documentation by itself, or at the expense of working software, is not useful.
Value 3 – Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
We need to be flexible and accommodating rather than fixed and uncooperative. This involves tradeoffs between the development team and business rather than reverting back to contracts and statements of work. We could build the product exactly as originally specified, but if the customer’s preferences or priorities change, it would be better to be flexible and work toward the new goal.
It is difficult to define an up-front, unchanging view of what should be built. This challenge stems from the dynamic nature of knowledge work products, especially software systems. Software is intangible and difficult to reference: companies rarely build the same systems twice, business needs change quickly, and technology changes rapidly.
We should recognize at the start that things are going to change, and we’ll need to work with the customer throughout the project to reach a shared definition of “done.” This requires a more trusting relationship and more flexible contract models than we often see on projects.
Value 4 – Responding to change over following a plan
The quote from scholar Alfred Korzybski, “The map is not the territory,” warns us not to follow maps if they do not match the surroundings. Instead, trust what you see and act accordingly.
In modern, complex projects, we know our initial plans will likely be inadequate. They are based on insufficient information about what it will take to complete the project.
Agile projects have highly visible queues of work and plans in the form of release maps, backlogs, and task boards. The intent of this value is to broaden the number of people who can be readily engaged in the planning process by adjusting the plans and discussing the impact of changes.
The next post will feature another random excerpt from the book “Agile Illustrated: A Visual Learner’s Guide to Agility”. If you liked the sample, consider buying the Kindle book available on your local Kindle store – here’s a link to the Amazon.com store.
Comments