(Hint: You might want to maximize the screen in order to see the elements of the slides I display.)

I often stop and reflect on the benefits of the two major Agile methodologies, especially Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP).  There is some amount of beauty and perfection in these methodologies.  Both are found on Agile Principles and Values, but tackle the beast of software development from different perspectives.  Scrum is like a great seven-course meal.  We have our Product Owner, Scrum Master, Team, Sprint, Daily Standup, Demo, and Retrospective.   All seven pieces are critical and you can’t just leave one out. Doing so would be the equivalent of a seven courses meal with only 4 or 5 courses.  XP on the other hand is like a great recipe.   Every practice feeds off one another just like every step in a great recipe is crucial to each and every other step.  Skipping a step or leaving out an ingredient is going to make for a really bad experience.  I’ve gone back and forth over time debating if the Agile evangelists are really right when they say you have to adopt all of the XP practices to really be successful. I have come to realize that they’re probably not too far from the truth, each of these practices really feed off one another.  Pairing forces developers to collaborate at the lowest and simplest level, 2 people.  We must have tests to provide a safety net for refactoring.  Test Driven Development (TDD) insures we have the tests by doing them first. Once we have tests we can leverage them for continuous integration and as a more effective and executable documentation. Each practice supports one another and is marginalized without these supporting practices.   You can’t just decide to take a few of these practices and expect them to work in harmony.   You got to follow the recipe to create a great seven-course meal or a great main dish.   Failure to do so will leave a bad taste in your mouth like crème brulee and hot sauce.

In the 1970′s, as projects grew larger and larger in scope, there was a concerted push to ensure that costly changes late in a project cycle were avoided at all costs.  These “defects” of process were identified as common enemies to a successful project lifecycle, and were one of the primary motivations to move to a more structured approach of project and product management.  Out of this effort grew what would become known as the “Waterfall Model” of product development.  This approach called for all planning, extremely detailed planning, to be conducted up-front, before any actual development work was started.  The thought, very rational at the time, was that any time spent up-front in initial planning was an investment that would pay dividends compared to a lack of detailed initial planning that could ultimately yield many costly changes late in the cycle.

Times were different then.  At that time there was a need to ensure that every last detail was known before beginning an expensive development effort.  Most of the projects that employed this methodology during this period were of a non-complex nature.  In simpler terms, they were more closely aligned with construction types of efforts as opposed to the complex nature of software development, especially considering the software development done today.  Why would I refer to construction efforts/projects on a non-complex nature?  Because back then success was generally a product of how closely the execution of the plan matched the plan.  It was thought that the final product of these efforts should match the original plan precisely, and any major deviations from the plan were categorized simply as defects.  And rightly so.  Construction can take this approach.  In fact, construction types of projects should take this approach.  These types of projects should not evolve over their construction efforts, as this may yield a poorly delivered product or a deliverable that does not match the expectations that were set during the planning efforts.

Software is different.  Software is knowledge work.  What we are building is generally based on a description from our customer of a product that does not exist.  When utilizing a waterfall approach to project management, our attempt to capture this description of an imagined product from our customer takes the form of a detailed specification.  And in our effort to reduce the perceived risk of change, we capture that all important signature to ensure that we discourage change along the way.  Even for software, this approach once worked, and worked well.  But as software became more complex, more innovative, and as product refresh cycles shrank, the need to be increasingly more responsive was seen as a compelling competing force working against efforts to guard against mid-stream product specification change.  As markets shifted, as companies competed, the waterfall model was quickly becoming a dinosaur in a world that no longer favored the large, lumbering behemoth that waterfall represented.  The pre-programmed death of a once useful approach was being triggered.

Waterfall, although not dead, is laboring through what seems to me to be a labored death march.  And although this is an agile blog, you are not going to hear me herald agile as the final, ultimate victor.  Perhaps if it were only a match between the two development approaches, but it is not.  The lifespan of the development lifecycle will go on and new players will emerge based our learning and understanding that has evolved along the way.  And as waterfall dwindles in effectiveness when applied to software development projects, agile is gaining a foothold.  Agile exploits today’s realities, just as waterfall did when it was king.  Waterfall is a victim of its own apoptosis.  It was destined, although not designed, to be obsolete, preordained to die the moment Winston Royce inadvertently wrote it into being.  Agile’s birth benefits from the pain that has been caused by utilizing waterfall in world that cannot wait for the long cycles that waterfall requires.  Death is always spurned by, and simultaneously allows for, rebirth.

Welcome to the world Agile. You have been around for awhile now.  You are becoming more and more well known.  You success has been widely documented.  You are past the dreaded chasm that many new beings are never able to cross.  You are now mainstream.  You are in your prime.  It is possible that your best years lie ahead of you.  It is possible that your best years are behind you.  But make no mistake, your own clock is ticking.  But that is the beauty of nature, every apoptotic cycle not involves the death of one being, it provides the energy for the creation of another.

I make my living providing agile training and coaching.  I am extremely passionate about the type of change that an agile transformation can mean to a company.  I have seen incredible results from the principled based approach that agile represents.  I hope that agile stays around for a long time.  But not longer than its usefulness.  And that is one of the great tenets of agile.  In the DNA of these agile principles is the idea that our organisms, our teams, our approach, our methodology, our framework, our everything should always be evolving as we learn more, as we experience more, as we become more.

It is truly a beautiful aspect of agile that from it’s own birth it recognizes that in its current form it had already predicted its own death.  But this is what makes agile a distinguished and impressive approach to product development and delivery.  Agile, I am your biggest fan, but I will not cry when you are gone, for your existence supplied the knowledge and energy for whatever is coming next.

Hi Beautiful,

I may not always be there for you, in fact, no one will.  Sad, I know, but you already know this.  But you will always be with you, and because I know you are an intelligent young lady, I wanted to share with you some of the things that I have learned, have been taught, or have picked up along the way.  Take these with you as you travel your path through life and look for bits of wisdom you can add so that someday you might also take the opportunity to pass along what you have learned to your own children.

Lead your life based on your values. By the time you read this you can trust that your values are there, you just may not know what they are yet.  That’s ok, so long as you place importance in identifying them as you venture into adulthood. Search for them, be relentless.  Know what you will stand for, and invest your spirit in knowing what you will not stand for.  Never seek to please another person in a quest to satisfy their values, for when you do, you will likely do so while sacrificing your own.  It took your father too may years to realize that a life lived based on anything other than your values is one spent in a futile attempt to gain acceptance from another person in an effort to validate yourself.  You don’t need to do this, it is momentarily satisfying and ultimately vacuous.  You matter, because you are you.

All existing means to your desired end are wrong. Another person’s path is not yours.  And only your path is right.  For you.  Cherish your originality.  Too much stock is put into fitting in, but the truly great ones among us seek to standup in the current, they choose to stand rather than simply float along with the drift.  I know the pressures to be accepted can be overwhelming, but never believe that simply doing what others do is the ultimate value to be had.  What do you truly seek in life Gwen?  It is a big question, but one worth asking.  And asking again.  I allowed too many years to pass before realizing that there is more to life than what can be bought with money.  Find what you seek and be open that what you want may not be easy or even immediately possible, but don’t allow that to sap you of energy.  This is the only life you get, spend it wisely.

There are no shortcuts in life. I wish this weren’t the case, but it is.  It just is.  The truly amazing things to be had on this earth are gained through hard work, driven by experiences, checkered with failures, but ultimately realized through perseverance.  There will be those that try to sell you the easy way out of your problems or the quick path to your goals, and they will be persuasive, but they will be selling you something that simply doesn’t exist.  Life is not meant to only provide enjoyable experiences, but also suffering, hardships, and pain as well.  But this is no mistake, it is by design.  A beautiful design.  These challenging experiences need to be valued as highly as your achievements, for without these you would not appreciate the magnificence of your triumphs.  Always remember that you cannot appreciate the mountains if you never experience the valleys.

Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside. As you grow up, you will be bombarded with the message that your value is contingent upon your compliance with another’s definition of acceptable.  I can only beg of you to not fall for this, it only ends in pain, anguish, and a feeling of being inadequate.  You are amazing, so long as you live your life based on the values that you define.  Nothing is so important as knowing which principles are worth standing for.

Avoid the boring people. Those people that like to play it safe have nothing to offer you, don’t waste your time trying to get them to feel your passion.  These folks value complacency and sameness as a means for security but in exchange must sacrifice the possibility of something better.  The possibility.  What beautiful words!  In fact, new rule, if you ever find someone that is perpetually afraid to do something different simply for the fact that it is different, share your view that there is beauty in risk, but don’t dwell on it.  If they can’t see it, move on.  Quickly.

Never do anything solely on the assumption that you will be rewarded for it. Your dad is still trying to learn this very valuable lesson.  When we act only motivated by the reward given by another, we give away all of our creative power to someone else.  Do what you believe is right.  And remember, the more talented, the more gifted, the more self-motivated a person is, the less they need the props from someone else.  You may be your biggest critic, but remember that you also must be your biggest cheerleader.   You will never need someone else to complete you.  You are already whole.

The most important lesson I could ever leave for you would be this…

You are responsible for your own experience. Gwen, I have seen too many people waste years believing that someone else is responsible for their happiness.  That someone else is responsible for causing their struggle.  These people have missed out on the opportunity to experience the beauty, and the challenge, of life.  All of the power on this earth exists in you at this very moment and it is unlocked by a simple decision.  The decision to take responsibility for your experience of life, for you.  Others might seem to upset you in life, but as you experience this pain realize that this is your decision.  No one can hurt you without your permission.  No one can ruin your day without your permission.  No one can make you happy without your permission.  I am not asking you to live your life without emotion, in fact quite the opposite; live your life through your emotional experience, but never allow emotion to have absolute meaning without you getting a chance to contribute to the internal discussion.  Never, ever give up this right to create the association of an emotion with a meaning that supports you and your values.  This is a powerful gift that the vast majority of people you will have in your life will have chosen to relinquish.   You are responsible for your own experience. This understanding is the greatest gift I could ever leave to another person, I hope you cherish it as much as I do.

There are many more things I am sure I will leave you, but these are good pillars on which to build a values-based approach to life.  And although you are not here yet, I look forward to all of the wonderful life lessons you will be teaching me.  I love you Gwen.  Always.  -Dad.

My presentation can also be found there, titled “All You Need To Know Is That It’s Possible.”  My presentation addresses many of the excuses I have heard teams make over the years as to why Agile could not work for them.  Over time I came to find that most of these teams simply used this type of excuse to relieve themselves of the responsibility of having to try to make Agile work, a responsibility they would certain shoulder, but only if they allowed themselves to believe that the Agile approach might be able to offer the enormous gains that are touted.  These same teams spend great deals of energy in convincing themselves to believe that it is simply not possible for Agile (or seemingly any better approach) to work with their unique, product, team, culture, organization, etc.  They would tell me that they are just too different.  This presentation seeks to make the case that it is often the limiting beliefs held by people that keep them from being able to succeed with Agile.

Hopefully I will see some of you at Agile2010 in Orlando in a couple of weeks, I will be tweeting non-stop for those of you that cannot make it.  Follow me at @AgileAdvisor.

Here are some of the details:

Website (and Registration): http://www.southernfriedagile.com

When: Friday, July 23, 2010. 8:30a – 4:30p

Where: The Crowne Plaza Charlotte Hotel. 201 S. McDowell Street, Charlotte, NC 280204

How Much: $49 (super cheap!!)

Twitter Hashtag: #sfa2010

Want more information: Go to the website for a list of sponsors, speakers, and the sessions currently scheduled.

See you there!!

I frequently work with teams of people from a range of companies, industries, and backgrounds, and its during these sessions that I think back to those larger thoughts about how we experience our lives as individuals and as members of teams.  What makes some teams click, thrive, and deliver?  How do some groups of people truly share a common goal and work creatively to achieve it?  Why do some groups of people seem to only suffer through projects and then deliver dismal results, consistently?  What is the definable difference between the experiences of these different groups?  Why are some people happy with their job, their company, their project, their healthcare, their family, their car, their house, their spouse, their life, while others would seemingly choose to be dissatisfied no matter what they may be blessed with?  Where are the connection of neurons responsible for our ability to be happy and productive on a team?  And does this ability to choose happiness relate to better relationships and results at work?  How do I grant the gift of effortless success and indomitable growth to teams that struggle endlessly to achieve even modestly positive results?

To help me answer these questions, I turned to an insightful book The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization. In the book authors Katzenback and Smith define a team as “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and a common approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”  Although I agree wholeheartedly with their definition, the book did not satisfy the curiosity I had about what components make certain teams tick and others tock.  I needed an understanding at a deeper level, I needed to examine the DNA of teams.  So instead of reading more about teams from a business perspective, I instead looked into those double helixes that seem to determine everything about us, our very own DNA, to see if any insight could be found.

The human genome project promised to finally unlock the secret recipe for what makes us who we are.  And like so many other great scientific promises of the past, it failed to yield an answer to everything, but rather provided a perfect foundation for even greater questions.  Although our DNA provides the building blocks for our physical being, it cannot alone explain the curiosities of individuals, from our personalities, to our attitudes, to our propensity for success, or our ability to trudge inexorably to failure.  This mysterious exclusion is expressed effectively in the observation of identical twins, where the DNA encoding remains identical, but where nearly all else is unique, especially when the brain is examined.

Like our DNA, we often cannot choose the members that make up our team, but equally similar to DNA, it is not simply the members of our team that pre-determine our possibilities.  Too often I hear individuals complain that consistent success would be possible if only they were assigned to the right team or if the right team were assigned to them.  This superficial failure of perspective can often become a self-fullfilling prophecy, yielding the expected negative results as a consequence of subconscious actions driven in support of the consciously expected outcome.  As with many mysteries of life, perspective and belief are more powerful than we allow ourselves to consider.  We seem to be more content to apply unreasoned reasons to our perceived consequences rather than seeking to drive meaning from those things for which we could have affected the outcome.

Recent discoveries in the world of science confirm the notion that we are more than our parts, both on the individual and team levels.  These scientific revelations point to a beautiful aspect of life that affirms that we are not limited by our structure, but are allowed infinite possibilities through the wonder of chaos; an inability and impossibility of perfectly predicting results based solely on observing conditions, thus free will is born and an infinite number of possible minds follows.  Author Jonah Lehrer states “that [this] is the triumph of DNA; it makes us without determining us.  The invention of neural plasticity, which is encoded by the genome, lets each of us transcend our genome.  We emerge, character-like, from the vague alphabet of our text.”  And as is true for individuals, it is equally true for how effectives teams can be, regardless of their own DNA, regardless of the individual components of the team.

Supporting these ideas, in a 2002 Science paper entitled “Stochastic Gene Expression in a Single Cell” Michael Elowitz of Caltech demonstrated that biological “noise” (a scientific synonym for chaos) is inherent in gene expression.  His results further solidified the unfolding scientific belief that it was this “noise” that held most of the possibilities for emergence in design for organisms, which contradicted the earlier collective belief that natural selection alone held this potential.  These discoveries, by extension, illuminated the idea that without this inclusion of chaos, then every cell that was created by the same DNA would operate, behave, and produce the same results, but we know that this is not the case.  In fact, without this beautiful inclusion to our evolution, we would not experience the diversity of life that we do.

Digging more deeply into what constitutes success in these complex adaptive systems (organized as teams), yields the result that diversity in experience, knowledge, personality, and drive is what allow them to truly excel.  The equivalent in nature was captured by Darwin when he wrote that ”the more diversified the descendants from any one species become in structure, constitution, and habits, by so much will they be better enabled to seize on many and widely diversified places in the polity of nature.”  A team’s diversity is one its greatest strengths, so long as the diversity is expressed and exercised regularly.

Teams are not doomed to failure as an inevitable consequence of the composition of it’s members.  Similarly, individuals are not merely limited to the sum of their specific DNA coded sequences.  And if these statements are true, how do we then affect better outcomes from both teams and individuals?  Just as individuals are formed by their experiences that shape their neurons, bringing temporary neural order to chaos, so too can teams also allow their experience to help bring consistency in results to their previously unpredictable outcomes.  But in order to make this happen, teams need two very important components in place: 1. An ability to clearly define their current state set against their preferred results (this allows the team to define the state of dissonance between reality and possibility, thus developing creative tension in the structure).  2. A mechanism that allows the team to utilize experience to shape future team decisions.

I am a firm believer that:

- Given the opportunity, most people would rather succeed than fail.
- People are very well aware of organizational constraints that limit their ability to achieve and succeed.
- Most people feel limited in their ability to affect change in their job.

So what is the answer?  How do we elicit better results from our teams?

If you are still with me this far, then it is only fair that I provide you an answer, right?  Unfortunately, as much as I would like to, I cannot provide an answer, only a direction.

The potential source for your organization’s power lies in the unexplored richness of experience and understanding held by your people.  You may believe that your organization actively solicits input and feedback, but if your organization is like most, you don’t, at least not well enough.  You will know when you have breached the barrier that separates average teams and corporate culture from their extraordinary equivalents.  You will know because you will discover the roar that exists on the other side of silence.  Do not dig unprepared for what you may find, the roar is often deafening.