Deliberate Discovery
and the myth of Certainty
Cara Turner South AfricaAgile Coach | User Group Chairman | Rigorous Tinkerer
“Once upon a time…
There was a software development project in which
everything that would happen was Known and Certain.
And so the project began.
And it happened that the world stood still while the
application was being built, so that it was delivered exactly
as it had been envisaged, and was perfect.
And everyone rejoiced for they were able to work more
efficiently than ever before.
(But exactly as had been known they would, with no other impact on
the world around them.) ”
Our Myth
What’s the Story?
the dramatic arc
What’s the Story?
the dramatic arc
the wrong story(we know this)
no
Our thinking is stuck
the devil we know
The cost of change
shapes our discovery process
The cost of change
… but it’s changed, tooshapes our discovery process
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All our creativity goes…
All our creativity goes…
… into a poorly imagined future
… and gets fixed…
…in our contractmodel
And then we…
… the most dangerous word in software …
“Hope”
What’s the Story?
What’s the Story?
Still uncertain + locked into a bad script
“We are uncovering…
better ways of developing software
by doing it and helping others do it.”
- The Agile Manifesto
Learning is what we do
and the world keeps changingDan North
The world keeps changing
Delay decisions
Prioritize Options
Know the Cost and Benefit
“Never commit early unless you know why”
Real Options
Information Arrival Process
Switch!
when effort exceeds return
What we can start with
Where we think we want to be
What kind of choices we need to make
What do we need to know?
which problem we’re tackling
how we’ll make decisions
what’s uncertain
what we can know
(Not just) Vision
impact mapping – Gojko Adzic
Why
Who
How
What
The gist of the thing
story mapping – Jeff Paton
Making sense of what we know
Obvious
ComplicatedComplex
Chaotic
Disorder
Cynefin framework – Dave Snowden
Complex: Experiments
inspect & adapt feedback loop
Create possibilities
innovation exercises
How we’ll discover
make sense
experiment
invent
Pay to Learn Early
- Alistair Cockburn
Focused Discovery
Risks DependenciesAssumptions Unknowns
What do we need to prove early?
How we’ll Decide
Impacts Options
Surprise!
make sense
experiment
innovate
assess impact
What’s the Story?
What’s the Story?
The Grand Adventure
Embrace Uncertainty
And the journey of discovering, deliberately
Cara TurnerCape Town, South Africa
Get in Touch
projectcodeX.co sugsa.org.za
twitter: @cara_fayefacilitatingagility.comslideshare.net/carafaye
“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.”
- John Allen Paulos