Agile and software engineering in the 21st century

©Alistair Cockburn 2010

What Makes Agile Work: What Makes Agile Work:

The New Software EngineeringThe New Software EngineeringGetting Past “Wimpy” AgileGetting Past “Wimpy” Agile

Dr. Alistair Cockburnhttp://Alistair.Cockburn.us


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The Agile Manifesto invites wimpy-ness

"… Individuals and interactions over processes & tools…"(Yayy!! I don't have to follow those stupid processes any more!)

"… Working software over comprehensive documentation…"(W00t!! Dump the documentation! I LOVE this agile stuff!)

"… Customer collaboration over contract negotiations…"(I'm done when I'm done and I never have to say when!)

"… Responding to change over following a plan…"(No plans! No project managers! No architects! )

Where do I sign up?


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People ...

Solving a problem

Creating a solution

To an interpreter unforgiving of error

Making decisionsevery decision has economic consequences

and resources are limited.

… they don’t understand which keeps changing

Com

municating

Deciding

Inve

ntin

g Expressing ideas

in a language … they don’t understand which keeps changing… they don’t understand which keeps changing


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Craft

Cooperative Game

Knowledge Acquisition

Flow Management

Self-Awareness (Personalities)

origami courtesy of Gery Derbier


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Self - Awareness


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People don’t match formulas

Keep these Try these

Problems


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Craft


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People learn skills in 3 stages

Shu: Learn a technique

Ha: Collect techniques

Ri: Invent / blend techniques


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Craft teaches us to pay attention to our skills and to the medium

Major crafts:

1 Deciding what to build

2 Managing (people and projects)

3 Modeling

4 Designing the external view

5 Large-scale design (architecting)

6 Fine-scale design (programming)

7 Validating the work


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The International Consortium for Agile is establishing a learning roadmap for each specialty.


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Cooperative Game


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Infinite Organization SurvivalCareer Management

Competitive Cooperative

Open-ended Jazz music

Finitegoal-directed

King-of-the-hillwrestling

Poker

Tennis

Chess

Rock-ClimbingTheater

JournalismExplorationSoftware

Development

Business

Product Line Management

IT Systems

Games have positions, moves, strategies


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Three moves:

Two conflicting subgoals:

Deliver this systemSet up for the next game

The situations (almost) never repeat!

Com

municating

Deciding

Inve

ntin

g


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C6 C20 C40 C100

D6 D20 D40 D100

E6 E20 E40 E100

L6 L20 L40 L100

Project Classification Scale:

Number of people coordinated

1 - 6 - 20 - 40 - 100

Comfort

Essentialmoneys

Life

Discretionarymoneys

Criticality

X

X X

XX

Adapt to your situation


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Richness of communication channel

Com

mun

icat

ion

Eff

ectiv

enes

s

2 people on phone

2 peopleon chat (Q

uestion-and-Answer)

2 people atwhiteboard

(Courtesy of Thoughtworks, inc.)

Face-to-face is the most effective - Try Video

Paper(No Question-Answer)

Videotape


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People issues determine a project’s speed

Can they easily detect something needs attention?

(Good at Looking Around)

Will they care enough to do something about it?

(Pride-in-work; Amicability)

Can they effectively pass along the information?

(Proximity; face-to-face)


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Flow Management


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I wish they’d decide what style they want!

Users &Sponsors

Testers

BusinessAnalysts

I wish they’d decide what

functions they want!

A decision

I wish they’d decide on the UI design

already!

I wish they’d think a bit more carefully

before coding!

Programmers

Every line of

code is a decision

UI Designers

Design = manufacturing if Inventory = Decisions!


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Users &Sponsors

UI Designers

ProgrammersTesters

BusinessAnalysts

Convert jams

Users &Sponsors

UI Designers

ProgrammersTesters

BusinessAnalysts

to continuous flow.

Reduce decisions in motion & balance the flow


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Knowledge Acquisition


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Delivers nearly no knowledge(or risk reduction)

Big-Bang Design is a late-learning strategy

time

Knowledge comes atthe “moment of truth”: final integration.

cost

Growth of knowledge with big-bang integration


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Development sequence indifferent (with respectto knowledge)

Delivers knowledge

(risk reduction)

We can pay to learn early in the project

time

cost

Growth of knowledge with early, continuous integration

Applies to both business ("lean startups") & technical design


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Develop for business value once risks are down

time

Knowledge growing(risk reduction)

cost

Business value growing

Reduce risks:- Business- Social - Technical - Cost / Schedule


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Trim to deliver on-time (or early)

Delay to get moreor better

Payoff = Trim-the-Tail: Deliver by value or date


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Craft Professions

skills in a medium

Cooperative Game communication teamwork strategies

Knowledge Acquisitionpay-to-learntrim-the-tail

Flow Managementunvalidated decisions

= inventory,lean processes

Self-Awareness (Personalities)the people, strategies, techniques

actually used

Designing in Teams

origami courtesy of Gery Derbier

Agile and software engineering in the 21st century

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