Technical Debt

Technical debt and design debt are synonymous  metaphors referring to the eventual consequences of sloppy software architecture and rushed software development. Code debt refers to technical debt within a codebase. Ward Cunningham first drew the comparison between technical complexity and debt in a 1992 experience report:

Shipping first time code is like going into debt. A little debt speeds development so long as it is paid back promptly with a rewrite... The danger occurs when the debt is not repaid. Every minute spent on not-quite-right code counts as interest on that debt. Entire engineering organizations can be brought to a stand-still under the debt load of an unconsolidated implementation, object-oriented or otherwise.

Ongoing development in the upstream project can increase the cost of "paying off the debt" in the future.  A team should take opportunities, on a regular basis, to pay back (or pay off) this debt.  Either reserve a percentage of your development cycle or dedicate an entire cycle to complete this work.  If you don't, it will come back to haunt you.  If your kludge of a solution doesn't come back to bite the development team, it will probably haunt the help desk, support team, or someone else downstream.

Just like regular debt, you're going to have to pay it back sooner or later.  As a former Manager of Software Engineering and now as an advisor to a customer, I've seen (and see) what technical debt can do to the velocity of a team.  It robs them of precious time, after the fact. The development team buys into the idea that doing things the wrong way, to save some time in the interim, is worth the risks and the overall cost.  This is a really short-sided thought process.  Technical debt is like getting a loan from loan shark who roles dice to decide what your interest rate is.  So, if you don't need to take the risk, don't do it.

Be honest with your customer, your team, and yourself.  Estimate your work and stand by your estimate.  Don't let someone else tell you how long it will take to deliver quality work.  If you have to, you'll just have to deliver less work.  That is, don't take on the debt in the first place.

[HT]: Wikipedia

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Practical Wisdom of Agile

What is practical wisdom? Have the moral will to make right by people. Have the moral skill to figure out what doing right means.

Aristotle distinguished between two intellectual virtues (1):

[1] The ability to think well about the nature of the world, to discern why the world is the way it is; it involves deliberation concerning universal truths.  (Wisdom)

[2] The capability to consider the mode of action to deliver change, especially to enhance the quality of life.  Aristotle said it's not simply a skill, however, as it involves not only the ability to decide how to achieve a certain end, but also the ability to reflect upon and determine that end.

If you combine these two virtues, you get practical wisdom.

What we as patrons of Agile need to do is have the moral will to make right by people and have the moral skill to figure out what doing right means.

A wise person knows when to make "the exception to every rule".

A wise person knows when and how to improvise.

A wise person knows how to use these moral skills in pursuit of the right aims.  To serve other people, not to manipulate them.

A wise person is made not born. (2)

Next time you look at the bureaucracy of your organization or procesures, ask yourself if there is a better way. Ask yourself if it's time to make that exception or to improvise. Ask yourself if you're ready for the practical wisdom of Agile.

(1) Wikipedia (2) Barry Schwart, author of The Battle for Human Nature

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Live (Agile) Video Sessions

If there is one place I like to get my information, it's from the experts.  For technology news and information, I tune into This Week in Tech (Leo Leporte and crew) or Tech News Today (Tom Merritt and crew) over at (TWiT.tv) When I can't watch them live, I watch the webcasts later.  When I want to do the same for start-up news and information, I tune in to This Week in Startups (Jason Calacanis and crew). What I see missing from my daily or weekly consumption of media is the topic of Agile.  Sure, I watch webinars, but these are mostly slide deck presentations.  What I see missing is a regularly scheduled "program" that serves the Agile community and more.  Well, it looks like the need is about to be met.  Peter Saddington over at AgileScout is about to launch  AgileScout "Live".

Though going back and watching interviews with industry experts, pundits, and aficionados is pretty awesome, watching it live takes it to a whole new level.  While watching a live session, you can also participate in a live chat, which allows you to interact with like minded people in ways you don't get from old-school media.

So, the big question is when? Peter posted a survey to find out when YOU the viewer would tune in for a live session. So, click the link below and let your voice be heard. Take the survey to pick the best time for live Agile video sessions.

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Free PMI (Agile) PDUs

pdu

One of the points of contention that I've heard, when interviewing both current and former Project Management Professionals (PMPs), is the difficulty of reporting Professional Development Units (PDUs).  I know people who chose to NOT renew their PMP and their memberships with PMI becuase of the process of collecting and submitting PDU information was too arduous, outweighing the value the accreditation and membership provided. The result I've seen is people paying to get PDUs in bulk or paying for the process to be easier.  I think this is a bit of a tragedy.  So, I want help you get 1 PDU for free.  All you have to do is click the link, enter a little contact information, and you'll get a link to a free 1 hour webinar.

From September through December, VersionOne offered a series of free Agile webinars.  There are a total of 6 Agile centric webinars, all free of charge.  Because I am a strong Agile proponent, I want more Project Managers exposed to Agile concepts.  This is a perfect opportunity for those looking to learn more about Agile to also earn a few PDUs.  To make it easy on you, I've added the PDU information below.

The Role of the Project Manager in Modern Agile Projects

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/556452601

Many groups adopting an agile development approach fail in ways that can be traced back to the missing project manager role. In other words, they didn't understand what good project managers do in the first place. In this talk, Dr. Cockburn starts from ten critical project success factors, relates those to PMI project phases and to the overall value and purpose of a project manager, leading to what a good project manager provides to even the most rabidly agile team (and also other project teams, of course).

PMI PDU Category: 4 Program/Title description: The Role of the Project Manager in Modern Agile Projects Process: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Closing Knowledge area: Scope, Risk, Communications Industry: Information Systems Provider name: Dr. Alistair Cockburn / VersionOne Address: 6220 Shiloh Road, Suite 400 City: Atlanta State: Georgia Zip: 30005 Country: United States

PDUs: 1

Conflict in Value Perception

This weekend I witnessed a true conflict in value perception.  We're not talking values like: - We treat others with respect - We are humble

Rather, it's about what the Customer (Product Owner), the Vendor (Core Team), and the I (Facilitator) believe has value.  I see direct value, like actual delivery of product, and indirect value, like mitigating risk by facilitating communications.

We started a deployment cycle that is going to take some time.  The team activities are clearly defined and level-of-effort have been estimated.  Dates in which potential risks could arise have been identified.  This is all good.  Until an activity begins, we won't be certain if a risk will be fully realized.  This is why I'm a really big proponent of daily communications.  Every morning, we have a 15 minute (status) meeting.  (The culture demands that we call it a status meeting so I'm good with it.)  The extended team is distributed (3 locations) so this is a little challenging.

Though I stressed to everyone the importance of daily communications (at a minimum), this weekend I was a little shocked at what happened.  Deployment activities were taking place over the weekend.  There was a trigger point for a risk that had been identified.  During the Friday status meeting, the Customer informed the team that they would not be on the status call.  Though I had agreed to be on the status call, this was a bit of a paradox.  I am a facilitator.  Per the contract, I can not act on behalf of the customer.  IF the team ran into a roadblock over the weekend, the customer would not know until Monday morning.  We could potentially be delayed by two days until the customer could provide feedback and direction.

So, what happened over the weekend?  The team did indeed run into a roadblock.  But, they were empowered enough to get the work done.  Because risks had been previously identified, a mitigation strategy was in place.  The team was able to bring in team members, over the weekend, without having to consult with the customer.

I still believe if the deployment is going to be a success, all parties must be fully committed.  We're all in this together.  I'll never ask a member of my team to do something that I wouldn't be prepared to do myself.

Something David Bland said at the APLN DC meeting really resonated with me this weekend.  He said,

When dealing with distributed teams, keep the feedback loops tight.

David could not have been more right. We dodged a bullet this time around. Empowering the team allowed us to do this. But, the customer took an unnecessary risk, by intentionally lengthening the feedback loop from 24 to 72 hours.

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Just One Agile Thing

I met with the Agile Influencers of DC, on Friday night.  The focus of the conversations for the evening was Agile Adoption.  One of the questions asked (I'm paraphrasing here) was

If you were on a project, and you could leverage just ONE "Agile" THING, what would it be and why would you choose it?

This is a little like the first episode of Surviver but it is a good exercise to make you think about what you find valuable in Agile. Would you choose the use of information radiators? Perhaps you favor retrospective meetings?  Or perhaps, you love the use of cross-functional co-located teams?

When I was asked, I chose empowered teams.  Look back at the Agile Manifesto and one of its principles.  Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

I believe if you build a team of professional and empowered people, you increase the probability of project success.  Give your people some general rules to follow and have the faith they will make the right decisions.  It beats the hell out of trying to control them!  Empowering them also gives you more time to help them when they really need you, rather than making trivial decisions.

So, what would be the one thing you would choose?  Why?

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APLN DC Event Wrap-up

Last night I attended my first APLN (Agile Project Leadership Network) event.  The speaker was none other than David Bland of the Scrumology website.  Some of you may also recognize David from his posts on Agile Zone or from him speaking at Agile 2010.  David did a great job talking about Distributed ScrumMasters.  He was very engaging and there were some really great conversations as a result.  The exchanges were so awesome that the time kind of got away from us all.  Before we knew it, it was time to wrap things up.  It was really great to have a chance to interact with this group of Agile proponents and thought leaders.  I met a few friends I've only known from online and I got to chat with a few people I haven't seen since AgileDC2010. I was told Jeff Sutherland will be speaking next month!  Check the APLN DC website for details.

If you are interested in joining the APLN DC Chapter, there's no cost.  However, if last night's event was an indicator of value, it would be worth paying for.

Pictofigo Premium & Agile Scrum

The Sprint - Male ScrumMaster

A few months ago, I partnered with Pictofigo, which provides high quality free hand drawings for Agile and Scrum proponents, tradition project managers, professionals, presenters, developers, web designers...  The list of people and groups which can benefit from these free drawings goes on and on.  Why use a Pictofigo drawing?Basically, if you need a drawing and the usual clip art just isn't going to cut it, Pictofigo could be a nice solution for you.  The count of free drawings is currently over 700 and growing.

So, what is new?  It's called Pictofigo Premium.  Pictofigo Premium, a brand new service, offers high resolution drawings for download and use.  These are print-ready graphics.  At launch, there are four premium drawings ready for download with more on the way.

If there is one thing I've learned, it's to offer visual aids to help communicate information.  That and they cover unsightly holes in the wall.  As a result, I've partnered with Pictofigo to create one-of-a-kind Agile Scrum posters.  Our first poster titled THE SPRINT will be offered in both male and female ScrumMaster versions.

The Sprint

Perfect for dressing up any shared workspace. THE SPRINT (Male ScrumMaster) captures each of the Scrum Roles, Meetings, and Artifacts in an easy to follow workflow format. It doesn't matter if you're a chicken or a pig, you and your team will love this. This version depicts a male ScrumMaster with his team.

Large Poster (Size:34.5" x 23") Get it now for just $24.99

Small Poster (Size: 20" x 13") Get it now for just $19.99

Mini Poster (Size: 17" x 11") Get it now for just $14.99

But what if you want to make more posters for yourself and your team and don't want buy one poster at a time?  What if you want to make this your desktop wallpaper or put it in your next PowerPoint presentation?  Well, you can get the same high resolution file used to create the poster directly from Premium Pictofigo!

Get The Sprint (Male ScrumMaster) in 300DPI

Get The Sprint (Female ScrumMaster) in 300DPI

Don't forget to check back really soon! We'll be linking to the The Sprint (Female ScrumMaster) poster and also Scrum Roles (Male and Female ScrumMaster) posters