Agile Software Development and Lean Thinking

I think agile software development practices are by and very useful and in the spirit of lean thinking. Software development is a domain that is not equal to say manufacturing cars. There will naturally be differences in how lean ideas are applied. And then within different software development organization their will be differences.

There certainly can be issues with how agile is adopted. And how you look at features and releases can make sprints seem like bad batches. Kanban is being adopted more and more for agile teams as an alternative to sprints.

There is certainly some of http://agilemanifesto.org/ which seems to be against lean. "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools" But in my experience the agile community is very in tune with lean ideas but it is also an area very much filled with experimentation and with fairly big areas still far from settled. I discuss software development fairly often on my blog.

I see a strong future for agile software development and continue to work on using the concepts at work to build a successful software development organization, upon a foundation of Deming and lean manufacturing ideas.

In response to: Agile software development does not equal LEAN thinking

Related: Agile Practices are Needed, Not Just Words - Improving Software Development with Automated Tests - The Importance of Making Problems Visible

Agile Practices are Needed, Not Just Words

Agile is Fragile

I embrace Agile/Scrum development because I am firmly convinced that it addresses many of the problems that plague software development along with providing working professionals with the autonomy that they should have in the first place. If something isn’t working, most likely it isn’t the process that is at fault. I’d wager that there is an implementation or execution problem. 

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Many organizations struggle with implementing the basics. Jeff Sutherland has spoken frequently about the Nokia Test and how upwards to 80% of teams that claim to be doing Scrum don’t perform that basics (some don’t even know who the product owner is, let alone have a prioritized backlog). 

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When it comes to problems with Agile development, people tend to blame the process when in reality the problem(s) are in their implementation and/or support of the process.

Well said. I find many management failures are do to very poor implementations of a style - compared to just really bad ideas in the first place (though that also exists). I think agile has great potential but you can't just say we are doing agile and expect everything to work. Poor implementation of the ideas will lead to failure.

Also you have to realize, in many organizations, you have to make numerous modifications. In my organization we have had to modify things because of what the organization is willing to do. It is working well for us but we have to watch where we are weak and attempt to improve our ability to actually practice agile methods.

Related: Better and Different Management - Future Directions for Agile Management - Leaving Quality Behind – Again No

Why Do I Want To Do Better?

What Makes You Want to Do Better?

Many organizations are quick to assume that extrinsic rewards (oftentimes, money) are the only way to get people to take initiative (a form of “Theory X” thinking). Followers of Dr. Deming (and now fans of Daniel Pink and his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us) realize that people have incredible intrinsic motivation if you don’t squash it, as an organization and leaders.

The biggest thing is that I dislike wasting my time. I want to eliminate the things that waste my time. And that also means I want my time to be as beneficial as possible. Therefore I want to find ways to create more good consistently. It is great to improve the system because then I get to have my effort not just let me be more effective (which lets me create benefits in the future more effectively) but I get to have the benefit I spent my time on multiplied by lots of people being more effective.

The only amount I care about other people noticing is when it helps me do more. Sometimes, it is helpful to get some new idea adopted if those responsible realize that they are benefiting from past improvements (otherwise people often just don't want to change). The incentives others give me for doing better don't matter to me. The one that matters most is letting me broaden the scope at which I work (so I can multiply the benefits I see from my effort).

I also do care about being able to work from home several days a week - and avoid the commute and focus without the distractions at the office.

I strongly believe a manager should focus on eliminating demotivation.

If you create an environment where you are removing the de-motivators and letting people improve the processes you will find people become more satisfied and less frustrated at work.

Are you working harder? And the VIBCO employee responded: "It doesn't feel like I'm working harder. I'm not stressed out. I'm getting more done and there’s a sense of accomplishment."

Related: Stop Demotivating Me! - Stop De-motivating employees - Understanding Psychology: Slogans are Risky Tools

What Should Employees Do? Focus on the Purpose and Improve

What should your employees be doing? by Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon

Employees all have four common requirements to guide them: - keep each customer (loyalty is critical) - find new customers -get as much money as possible from each customer (as long as it is moral, legal and ethical) - you are in business to earn money - look for efficiencies (not based just on cost-cutting, unless it comes from elimination of waste). Cost-cutting alone leads to cutting services that customers or employees value. If point 3 is causing concern for public benefit organizations, reword it to "maximize return on investment from each customer (keeping it moral, ethical, and legal)".

I don't agree with number 3. I think Jeff Bezos says it well: "There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less." I would rather be a customer AND invest in those organizations working to charge me less instead of an airline, for example, following point number 3, as stated. Also that lists seems to have nothing about "respect for people" one of the 2 pillars of lean manufacturing. The two underlying principle of the Toyota Production System are continuous improvement (kaizen, genchi genbutsu, challenge [don't accept that things can't be better]...) and respect for people (respect and teamwork). And missing much of what Dr. Deming said about purpose.

Pay Doesn't Fix Overwork

The FLSA OT Exemption No Longer Computes! [the broken link was removed]

When the DOL enacted the FLSA back in 1938 there were a couple of things that could not have been taken into account. The whole basis for the overtime exemption was that certain employees were educated, trained, and responsible at a level that afforded a certain flexibility in how they get their job done. Generally the argument was that sometimes those professionals would work 40 hours a week, sometimes they would work 45, and sometimes they would work 35. Whatever it was, though, the expectation was that their annual salary should take into account the level of effort – and the time on task – required by the role.

 

I would say that those that many employees in such situations are paid a salary and are not paid for exact hours of work. Work has changed. I am a bit surprised we haven't seen more people appreciate the huge salaries many in the USA get given the current economy but I guess that is a bit foolish. 

We tend to compare our situation to anyone that has it better than us and say it is unfair we don't have it better. People would be a lot better off looking at all those that have it worse of than they do for no good reason and be thankful for what they have. 

At the same time I agree many organizations have reduced staff and piled too many responsibilities on those that are left. That is an issue to manage. But I don't see it as a pay issue but as a well being issue. 

The agile software development community has a great view "The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely." That is a key to better managed organizations. Pay is important but it is separate from effective managing of overwork. It isn't good to overwork and then just pay more money and think you solved the problem. 

There does seem to be a problem of people having jobs that are too much. Part of which is due to always being on call. I think more than that though is the issue of policies and management that just makes the workplace much more annoying that it has to be. We need to improve systems so work is more enjoyable and sustainable. Also I think the FSLA assumed many would be working well over 40 hours a week on average. I think that is fine. what is a sustainable pace will vary and depend on the work.

Use Internet Standards Not Silly Solutions Requiring Proprietary Operating Systems for Web Apps

Suits/MBA types must be in charge of how ABC web properties work. The site tells me:

"You have access to thousands of live events on ESPN360.com courtesy of your internet service provider."

No I don't. Your amazingly lame (likely decided upon by some suit that doesn't have a clue about internet technology or customer service) watching solution requires specific operating systems to work (Windows or Mac). I don't use those, which my browser tells your web server. In the first place, designing web solutions that are not based on web standards is very lame. Second, if you are that lame at least bother to see that you don't support the person visiting your site and don't give them false claims about your system being able to provide them access.

Related: Making Life Difficult for Customers - Customers Get Dissed and Tell - Verizon Provides Lousy Service = Dog Bites Man - How can Management Think This is Wise?

Management Blog Rankings

Searching on Google today for Management blog lists us 3rd. Yahoo has us 2nd. Live has us 5th

The Career 100 Global Ranking of Top English-language Career Blogs lists the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog 39th.

In the latest Top 100 Blogs for Developers we dropped from 32nd to 94th.

Corrupt Looters at AIG

Response to AIG Bonuses Have You Pointing the Finger in the Wrong Direction

The core problem is we have a bunch of corrupt bureaucrats that are looting companies like 3rd world dictators. For some reason people seem to think if you and your buddies conspire to loot millions it is legal and if you and your buddies conspire to take the office supplies that is stealing.

I fully understand that these people looting millions conspire with attorneys to try and make the looting appear legal (and can afford to pay the lawyers well to make such a case). My guess is you could easily get lawyers to make your looting of a few thousand dollars worth of office supplies legal if you pay them enough and can bribe others to show why your looting is beneficial. The problem is if you are only looting thousands you can't cut the lawyers in on the game and still walk away with something, you need to loot millions to have enough to buy your castle and bride lots of others so they go along with your looting.

What has people so upset is that people that obviously did about as bad a job as humanly possible are supposedly entitled to millions for creating billions in harm. Anyone with sense realizes something is very wrong with such a situation. And as they learn more they become more and more amazed at the brazen corruption within companies that are now being paid by their taxes. It is exactly the same thing people feel if some corrupt dictator steals.

They also get angry as talking heads try and make it appear that the corrupt looters are capitalists. Trying to say to people that if you don't support corrupt looters you are against capitalism makes people upset. You are against the friends of the talking heads (their corrupt cronies) if you don't support looting of companies, you do support capitalism.

People really get upset if they bought the talking heads excuses for their golf buddies ludicrous looting and now see exactly what these talking heads have been telling them for years. People don't want to admit they have been fooled into believing that they should be happy about corrupt looters that drove a Rolls Royce and angry with welfare Moms that were lazy. It gets pretty hard to accept that these imbeciles are the people that are suppose to be paid millions because they "deserve" it. Other than having a "high class" of buddies so when they loot they do so with the full knowledge of the talking heads friends what do they offer?

Eventually the evidence that the talking heads are just supporting the looting their friends have been doing for decades while you sat there and accepted their idiotic rantings gets to people. Well you really should be angry. And you should be angry that you accepted such notions for years. But it is easy to redirect that to the imbeciles that behaved so corruptly that you can't avoid the fact that you sat by as the looters and their friends looted and now your economy is in deep trouble. The buddies of the talking heads have behaved so poorly it isn't possible to accept the excuses of the talking heads any longer.

How many people will actually change based on their new understanding? Very few, is my guess. They will try and pretend like all the looters are just exceptions. They are not. The system itself is corrupt. The looters are taking what they don't earn. They are leaving behind ruins. They are convinced that they deserve their loot, just as a dictator is convinced they do.

The huge problems created by greedy fools at AIG are only a portion of the problem. Their buddies at the other financial companies are just as corrupt. And the bonuses paid 2 years ago are just as much looting as those people are mad about today. The problem is much deeper than the looters. The problem is a society that has so lost the understanding of honorable behavior and ethical standards that they think it is ok for people to loot. And while people are mad now, I don't see any evidence people have decided to stop accepting the looting preformed by brooks brother bureaucrats.

Related: Looting: Bankruptcy for Profit - Why Pay Taxes or be Honest