Agile Software Development

Project to Product. Wait.

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In the last few years many companies have adopted the change in terminology “Project” to “Product” rapidly.  This article highlights the key difference between a software and non software product. The understanding of the nature of the software is important while deciding the approach to build and deliver.

Developing software is relatively new compared to manufacturing, shipping, aerospace, automobile, oil or electronics industries (Software engineering is about 50 years old whereas other industries have experience of more than 100 years). The Software Industry (nowadays called as a digital, tech etc) is unique compared to other industries primarily because it is used by other industries as an enabler and there are very few but powerful companies that are built primarily on software that have evolved in the last few decades (starting with Microsoft). 

Software is very unique in many aspects that brings many opportunities as well new challenges in terms of managing the whole development process. Unfortunately, most of the software development methods are influenced by the manufacturing industry (specifically automotive, Ford production line, Toyota Production System).

Across the industry there is a trend to move from projects to products in that context it is important to understand the uniqueness of the software itself.

There are some differences between Software Product (ex. Navigation System) and a Non-Software Product (ex. Car or Toaster). Most products these days have large amounts of software that makes them “smart” products,  like Smart TV, Smart Watch, Smartphone which have a good amount of software embedded in the product (ex. iPhone, Tesla).  To understand the complexity, it is important to look at the distinction between the software products and non-software products

Built or engineered and not manufactured

The software product is built or engineered and there is no manufacturing involved; basically it is designed, developed, and released whereas non software products involve design, development, manufacturing, and release. In addition, they will have after sales support and warranty. The absence of manufacturing time enables the software to be released continuously and implement DevOps. 

Wear and Tear

Theoretically Software Products will not have any wear and tear, whereas non-software products will have natural wear and tear as well as periodic maintenance and repairs.  As the products become older the maintenance and repair cost increase. Ideally throughout the life cycle about 5-10% per annum is spent on maintenance. The maintenance cost increases over a period of time and the product is retired /withdrawn with the release of a newer product.

Due to this difference non software products have a separate after sales and support teams. 

Ideally there should not be any maintenance cost but in reality there is significant cost due to field defects (errors that escaped during the development phase. The ability to modify software even after release made it possible to add new features while fixing existing defects.  This lead to a continuous development and delivery approach to meet business needs. That is the foundation of DevOps where both development teams and operations (maintenance) teams  together handle the product development and delivery cycles. 

Economics, scale and society

Software is becoming a central part of many products and it is also creating new challenges in societal behaviours and sustainability. While advanced manufacturing techniques and automation have given rise to an unprecedented scale in developing hardware. They are also creating new issues around electronic waste, consumerism and so on. 

Per unit cost of a non software product (just the hardware in a smart product) decreases as the volumes increase, whereas for software no such cost reaction exists. The cost of hardware in some scenarios is almost negligible. 

Scaling a software product is a design challenge whereas scaling a hardware component is also a manufacturing challenge. Any mistakes in manufacturing are very costly creating a huge pile of e-waste. 

In order to get more profit the companies are making the hardware obsolete (especially with smartphones) faster and adding few enhanced features and releasing the new product in a short cycle.  It is fueling the consumerism mindset. 

With IoT more and more appliances are getting smart, definitely they add value but at a certain cost to the society. 

Conclusion

Overall it is not just enough to change the titles and nomenclature and even mindset to “from project to products” a broader analysis of the overall impact and good understanding of software and it’s characteristics helps organizations to address the challenges holistically.  

Acknowledgments 

Project to Product: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Digital Disruption with the Flow Framework Book by Mik Kersten for ideas and inspiration. 

Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach (IRWIN COMPUTER SCIENCE) Hardcover – 16 Mar. 2014 by Roger S. Press — My favourite textbook during my graduate school and giving me the solid foundation of Software Engineering

Raghavendra (Raghav/Ragz) Mithare

The views/opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own; they do not represent any of the organizations he is associated with.  Author will not take responsibility for any inaccuracies, mistakes in this article. No permission required to share, copy and redistribute. Please share if you have any comments view in the comments below or write to mithare@gmail.com

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Nudge

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Steve is very shy and withdrawn, invariably helpful but with little interest in people or in the world of reality. A meek and tidy soul, he has a need for order and structure, and a passion for detail.

Is Steve more likely to be a librarian or a farmer?

Before you proceed, pause for a moment and make your choice – A for librarian and B for farmer and also make a mental note for your reasoning. The point is not about finding the right answer but to understand your own decision making process.   

This above example is from Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. This is an interesting example of a heuristic bias. While making the decision we forget to consider the overall population of farmers and librarians. The description “a meek and tidy soul, he has a need for order and structure” flips the decision towards librarian for most people.  If you have chosen A as the answer then it is wrong but the main point is to understand why it is wrong?

When I came across this example few years back for the first time, I was blown away by its simplicity and realised  how and why we (humans) make these types of mistakes and keep repeating them. During the same time I was also revising Don Norman’s classic The Design of Everyday Things, I was working on a Process Architecture to define a lean-agile processes for my assignment with Jaguar.  I could see some common patterns around design as well as bias.

As technical people sometimes we are biased around some basic operations and we tend to forget some of the obvious things. The same things are difficult for non technical people or the end users of the system.  

Finally I came across Richard Thalers work on Nudge and choice architecture. It is a bridge between avoiding errors due to cognitive bias and human centric design approach.

Now coming back to the above example most people will vote for Steve as a librarian (option A), even a group people with good background in statistics.

Now let’s brush some basics — The classical definition of probability theory states that – probability of an event (likelihood of –  occurrence of an event) is the number of outcomes favorable to the event, divided by the total number of possible outcomes, where all outcomes are equally likely.

If you toss a coin, the probability of getting a heads is 0.50  (or 50%).

the number of outcomes favorable to the event  = 1 (getting a heads)

total number of possible outcomes  = 2 ( heads, or tails)

the probability of a getting heads = ½  (50%)

Now coming back to the above example, as per the occupational data, there are more than 20 male farmers for each male librarian in the United States. The ratio of farmers to librarian is 20:1 this translates to a huge difference of 0.95 and 0.05.  (95% and 5%). The likelihood of Steve being a farmer is much higher than he being a librarian.

Same example in visual form, if you have to pick at random in the first case both green and red have equal probability whereas in the second case the probability of picking green is higher.

Nudge-Raghav-13.15-14.00 AS Data-01

This understanding is crucial in the era of Social media and mobile apps, just few incidents are enough to create a strong view against an individual and/or institution.

In the book Kahneman describes about System 1 and System 2 and explains how most human beings make decisions without being aware of the inherent bias.

System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.

System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations.  The normal tendency is to take the path of least resistance.

The reason most people choose Steve as a farmer is it fits the mental model or stereotype of a librarian. For brain (using System 1) it is easy and faster.

In the next part the concept of Nudge and Choice Architecture will be covered.

Note:

Reference (Partial list)

Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Penguin Randon House, 2011.

Mithare, Raghavendra. “NUDGE – ROLE OF ECONOMICS IN ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN.” presented at the Agile Tour London 2018 Conference, London, October 19, 2018.

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t hire a coach if you need a consultant.

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Don’t hire a coach if you need a consultant.

Smith: “Well, you have a good experience of coaching and working with big brands. Will you be interested in coming on board and coaching our team ?”

Anna: “Sure, can you please share some more detail about the role ?”

Smith: “ I’m creating a community of practice for Business Excellence, formed by a team of coaches, You will be training and coaching the people on the floor on best practices, processes and tools. Especially, I want you bring your expertise and solve the efficiency issues raised by the senior leadership. By the way,do you have experience of coaching senior leadership ?”

Anna: “Yes, Thanks for giving the background about the role but I think you need a good consultant not a coach”

…..

These days many companies are busy hiring coaches for various requirements though there is a real requirements for coaches,  many companies are not clear about the role. There is a need to build awareness about coaching and it’s benefits.  

“ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential.”

The focus of Professional coaching is on

  • setting goals
  • creating outcomes and
  • managing personal change

The skills required for coaching have significant overlap with skills required for other personal or organisational support professions like mentoring, therapy and consulting.  

Mentoring

A mentor is an expert who provides wisdom and guidance based on his or her own experience. Mentoring may include advising, counselling and coaching. The coaching process does not include advising or counselling, and focuses instead on individuals or groups setting and reaching their own objectives.

Models like People Capability Maturity Model have given frameworks to implement organisational level mentoring programs.   

Therapy

Therapy deals with healing pain, dysfunction and conflict within an individual or in relationships. The focus is often on resolving difficulties arising from the past that hamper an individual’s emotional functioning in the present, improving overall psychological functioning, and dealing with the present in more emotionally healthy ways.

In contrast to coaching, therapy focuses on the past whereas coaching is focused towards future, based on self initiated change process.    

Consulting

Individuals or organisations retain consultants for their expertise. While consulting approaches vary widely, the assumption is the consultant will diagnose problems and prescribe and, sometimes, implement solutions.

Peter Block mentions in his book Flawless consulting the definition of consultant as

“a consultant is person in a position to have some influence over an individual, a group, or an organisation, but who has no direct power to make changes or implement programs.”

The credit for starting consulting as a profession goes to Marvin Bower, founder of  McKinsey & Company, who is considered as father of Management Consulting. He insisted on impeccable professional standards in substance, ethics, and style; that gave the credibility and an identity to the profession of consulting.

Organisations like International Coach Federation (ICF) are doing their best to make the profession of coaching to maintain it’s credibility and value in the industry through developing and enforcing code of ethics and Standards of Ethical Conduct for the community of professional coaches.

In the HBR research report on coaching, “What Can Coaches Do for You?” by Diane Coutu and Carol Kauffman,

The management guru Ram Charan says

“ The industry badly needs a leader who can define the profession, the way Marvin Bower did for management consulting.”

 

Being Agile – Ontological perspective

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Kari L. Granger (US Air Force Academy) shares her experience ..” I was in Iraq as the officer in charge of a unit, but for the first time under enemy fire, I realised that the knowledge I gained from studying leadership during six years of being educated as a military officer with a masters degree in Leadership, did not leave me being the leader I needed to be under fire. For example, knowing that in a frightening situation a leader should be courageous was very different from being courageous in that situation.

Reference (https://vimeo.com/65658787)

“Being Agile” is one of the top topic of discussion in many Agile forums and aspiration for many organisations. Various  aspects of being agile that are discussed in many Agile conferences, meetups and blogs. There are many opinions, views and perspectives about – “doing” Agile vs “being” Agile.  In this article an Ontological perspective about being Agile is shared.

Ontology is a branch of philosophy(in particular meta-physics) focusing on study and nature of ‘being’, this term is also widely used in social science, computer science /artificial intelligence, information science and in many other fields.

The term is derived from Greek words, “Onto” for existence and “logia” for study, science. The Latin derivative ontologia means science of being.

In general ontology focuses on the nature being. For example, let’s consider an apple. The existence of apple can be experienced by sight, touch, smell and taste.  In an apple juice, though the form is changed the existence can be experienced in the form of smell and taste. The “essence” or the being of an apple can be experienced.

In the case of living beings the concept of “being” is different, especially for human beings. Human beings  have wide range of beings in which they express themselves. Normally they are expressed as emotions like “being happy”, “being sad”, “being angry”, “being enthusiastic” and so on.  The being is not just the emotional state but it is much more than that. It is a combination of mental state (attitude and state of mind), emotional state (feelings and emotions), bodily state (body sensation), thoughts and thought process (logic and memory) in a given moment of time or in a given situation.  This also includes mind-set (frame of reference) and world view (model of reality).

In fact, one can’t write/read about “being” then it becomes “knowing”.

From an Ontological perspective, being agile explores the “being” as the ways of being for people and teams. For an effective transition to being Agile all aspects are important.

Unlike psychological models which are based on mind-set and worldview, ontological models are based on phenomenology (a methodical discipline deals with being and action as these are actually lived.  sometime referred as experiential learning). To access ones being tools/practices like mindfulness, reflection, and presence can be of great help.

Another way to distinguish being is to split any activity into doing, having and being domains.

ontology-01

Suppose if you are preparing for an examination, first you take lot of actions (like you do all your preparation), it is in the domain of doing. As a result of your actions (preparation) you will get some results. It is either pass or fail in that examination or a certification. This is called “having” or results of your action (doing). Depending on the results there will be a change in our experience, you either become happy (if passed) or sad (if failed). You are “being happy” or “being sad” based on the results (having)  and action (doing).  This is our default paradigm.

The alternate paradigm considers the innate ability of human beings to alter their state of being. ontology-2

In alternate paradigm, you start with being happy, then take actions like studying and preparing for the exam. Finally as a result of your actions you get some results and choose appropriate ways of being to express it.

This alternate paradigm is used by many leaders and champions in their way of being.  It is like Roger Fedrer starts “being a champion” even before he enters the court , and plays the match to  the best of his abilities (doing) and (most probably) wins the grand slam (result).

This is not something you can use it like a formula but the alternate paradigm is definitely a possibility.

Once you are aware about the difference between “being” , “doing” and “knowing” you can start exploring the experience “Being Agile” and perform (do) agile practices and get extraordinary results (having) for you and your stakeholders.

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End note : Best way to experience the ontological perspective it to attend/participate in an event. I conducted a session in Agile Leadership meetup.  The slides are shared below

I would like to hear your views and feedback, write to me at rmithare@processwhirl.com or call me at +44 782 164 5866

 

 

Power of Language

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I have attended many workshops on presentation and communication skills during my early days of professional career and in these workshops one common statistics shared focuses on the channels of communications.  These statistics say that our communication is made-up of about 55% body language, 38% tone and 7%  on the actual words spoken.

Later when I was getting trained to become a professional coach, I learnt the crucial last 7% of communication i.e. the – the actual words spoken. Till that time all my focus was on improving my body language and tone.

I have often observed that some of the best coaches use certain words and speaking style frequently. It looks to me that they have mastered the art and science of communicating using the power of language. I have observed that some of the best coaches use phrases like “be on time” instead of “don’t be late”. I have often heard them saying “this sprint should be successful” instead of “this sprint should not fail”. Initially I used to think that they are just trying to say things in a positive manner by using sentences like “glass is half full” rather than “glass is half empty”. But it is not just that.

There is strong relation between the words we use and the reality we experience.  In metaphysics the concepts of reality is expressed in “language” only. All existence in this universe can be expressed only in language. Some philosophers argue that the reality that one experiences arises in one’s language. I agree to this part to a large extent.

“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein

To illustrate this point let’s do a small exercise to  try and understand the power of language.

Consider you get triggered by some person when they behave in a certain way. Now breakdown the whole scenario as below –

What is the trigger and result? When John checks-in the code without proper review and when I see the build failing. I become angry.

Notice the phrase “I become angry” – Now instead of using the word “become” try saying “I wound up being angry”.

What is the difference? By changing the language we actually create a new reality. Instead of the thinking you “become angry” you start to realize that due to certain triggers anger starts manifesting within you and you experience some emotions and behaviours.

Language is a very powerful tool and it has the power to alter or create reality. Artists and poets use it creatively to generate certain emotions and experiences. Lawyers use it to argue their cases. Therapists use it to heal people. Coaches use it bring out the best in others and leaders use to inspire people.

Hence you can change your words to change your world.

I close my article with my favourite video that demonstrates this power of language.

Ontological constraints in coaching ‘Agile Teams’

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Slide2

I’m speaking at the upcoming Global Scrum Gathering in Bengaluru (27-29 Jun, 2016). In this article I will give some background about my 90 min workshop. The ‘ontological constraints’ is the topic close to my heart and I’m excited to share these concepts with all of you. These concepts are easy to understand but difficult to explain. I think these concepts have evolved along with the evolution of human beings. I find them very relevant in the context of Agile Software development which emphasis “interaction” among people.

Whenever there is an “interaction” among people these ontological constraints play a vital role in the overall outcome and experience of that transaction.

Let’s look at, what is Ontology?  Ontology is a branch of philosophy focusing on study and nature of ‘being’, now this term is also widely used in social science, computer science and in many other fields.

The term is derived from Greek words, “Onto” for existence and “logia” for study, science.

In general ontology focuses on the nature being for everything for example take an apple. The existence of apple can be seen, felt and can be tasted. In the context of managing Agile teams, I will be focusing on “way of being for people.”

To understand ‘the way of being’, pause for a moment.

Observe your mental state (attitude and state of mind), emotional state (feelings and emotions), bodily state (body sensation), thoughts and thought process (logic and memory). So your way of being is “what is going on with you internally in a given moment or in a given situation”

Slide1

Once you experience the way of being, you can now look at the ontological constraints.

To look at the ontological constraints you need do a small exercise.

Write down or make mental note of the following question.

What kinds of people or kinds of situations you find uncomfortable to deal with?

Consider that there are some invisible ontological constraints are at play here.

Share your thoughts here or write to me at  rmithare@processwhirl.com / mithare@gmail.com

Tweet at @mithareraghav  with #agilecoaching #SGBLR

I’m speaking at Global Scrum Gathering Bengaluru, 27-29 June 2016.  #SGBLR

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