Selfish Programming

Hate Something, Change Something, Make Something Better

2008-08-19T21:03:00.007+01:00

Dear Reader,

This blog's moving home. I look forward to seeing you chez new and shiny Selfish Programming.

- Farewell and Hello

Happily Ever After?

2008-08-12T22:28:00.007+01:00

SimBlogging: Agile 2008 Toronto Visit

2008-08-09T05:48:00.007+01:00

'SimBlogging' offers a his and hers viewpoint where Pascal and Portia timebox-blog as a pair on the same topics simultaneously

Rough Guide to Toronto

Darwin at the Royal Ontario Museum - the story of Darwin as a curious young man seeking to better understand the world around him which has helped us to better understand ourselves
Casa Loma - a dream come true for one man whose wife was the Head of the Girl Scouts
Niagara on the Lake - where shops like Just Christmas are frequented by locals and tourists every day of the year
Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls - THE best wet ride I've been on in one of Nature's most beautiful amusement parks

Agile 2008

'Bimbo Slides' - for describing presentations that look good but have a conflicting message when the volume's turned up
'Lego Moment' - describes a moment in time when you realise a missing piece in your experience you never knew you lacked or needed to complete a task at hand

Chilling Out and Staying Cool

Chez Gino's - an impromptu home-cooked lunch in the red light district served by a charming Belgian Agile coach in Toronto
Potted Canadian history in 30 minutes - a compelling account of 400 years of Canadian history in 30 minutes on indigenous people from Allison over a tasty sushi lunch
Pairing on Mission Dress Smart - where two Agile coaches practice giving feedback to one another on the most subjective and volatile of topics
Dinner with Ben - meeting Christophe Thibault's other half (binôme) at a restaurant called the Queen Mother's

Looking into the Mirror

Strangers to ourselves - where we ask: Mirror, Mirror on the wall - if I can only change myself and everyone has value, how can I become better?
Playing with strangers - Playing Snow White and the Seven Dwarves kanban as a fun networking exercise where everyone gets to take a good look at themselves in the mirror

Les Neuf Cases aka The Nine Boxes

Running a session in French and English - Les Neuf Cases (The Nine Boxes) helped bring together participants with a common interest in learning how to get the questions right in order to ask the right questions
Bilingual session preparation - in which Pascal and Portia have fun preparing for a dramatisation of what happens when folks discover the customer's need by asking the right questions

Value-Driven Presenters

Ice cream and tasty cupcakes - meeting people who are passionate about learning new things and know that the best way to learn is through fun and games
Show me the money - helping out at the sneak preview of the Business Value game created by Pascal and Vera, the pair who brought you the ubiquitous XP Game
Doing not just talking - the best sessions at the conference were those offering practical techniques such as Mike Cohn's 'Prioritising the Product Backlog' and Christian and Christoph's 'Conflict Resolution Diagram' from the Theory of Constraints Thinking Tools
Mini celebrations - whenever participants found our sessions useful and relevant so that everyone can become a little more agile every day

Fairytale and Fantasy

2008-08-08T16:36:00.010+01:00

Agile 2008 - Day 1
Pascal and I pair-present a session on improving personal effectiveness called Mirror, Mirror on the Wall... Why Me? The session begins with an Agile re-telling of the fairytale favourite Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Think storytime à la Tarantino for adults. We got a round of applause for the storytelling and many participants left the session with new insights about themselves.

Dramatis Personae

Snow White - team player, works hard, naive
Evil Queen - gets things done, power-hungry, manipulative
Hunter - disciplined, practical, mercenary
Doc - knowledgeable, solution-focussed, arrogant
Bashful - sensitive to others’ needs, quiet, dislikes conflict
Sleepy - entertaining, easily distracted, difficult to motivate
Sneezy - friendly, creatively efficient, allergic to work
Happy - positive, motivated, can ignore problems
Dopey - enthusiastic, lacks discipline, lacks attention to detail
Grumpy - analytical, critical, poor communicator

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves Kanban Game - Part 1
Now we begin our journey of self-discovery through a cycle of personal judgment, reflection, introspection and action. Let's take Snow White as an example.

Personal judgment: Does Snow White remind you on anyone? Give examples of why you think they remind you of Snow White.
Reflection and introspection - 'Looking into the Mirror': Why do you think what you think about that person? What does what you think about them say about you?
Action: What are some actions you can take to improve your understanding of that person? What's the smallest thing you can do to improve your relationship with them? Pick one action and do it.

Agile Coach's #1 Secret to Great Teamwork
We cannot change others. We can only change ourselves.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves Kanban Game - Part 2
We assemble a fairytale project team. Everyone dreads drawing the Evil Queen card because although the Evil Queen gets things done, she's also power hungry and manipulative. As in real life, we have to find ways to best leverage the skills, experience and interests of every member of our team. Agile is about facing challenges head on and fostering human potential.

Agile Coach's #2 Secret to Great Teamwork
Everyone has value.

Go, Go, Gameplay
You can play the game for free. All Agile Fairytale materials will be available online soon under the Creative Commons licence. Why not define your own happy ending today?

Good Morning Toronto

2008-08-08T12:40:00.006+01:00

The most striking thing about Toronto is its people. It's a place where diversity is reflected in every face in the crowd, from groups of friends to couples and families. Walking along Queen St on a Saturday afternoon gives me hope. Here is a community that realises the sociological, cultural and cognitive evolution that Gene Rodenberry envisioned.

The Bizarre and the Marketplace
With over 1500 attendees, Agile 2008 is the largest collective of Agilistas I've ever seen under one roof. In typical Torontonian fashion, its diversity is represented by more than 400 sessions across 19 tracks in just 4 days. The variety of sessions makes for interesting reading, but I find myself constantly wondering what I'm missing out on. Sometimes too many options is a bad thing when their cost outweigh their value.

Group Smarts
The key attraction for me was James Surowiecki author of The Wisdom of Crowds. James asserts that 'groups of people can be remarkably intelligent'. He believes that crowd intelligence improves the closer they are to the ground.

According to James, hierarchies are a problem because they create incentives for people to conceal information, to do what their bosses want, to game the system. The result: a flawed information system.

Dream Team
James reiterates that the secret to teamwork is collaboration. First we assemble a team of appropriate people, then we create the right conditions.

Quality collective work requires three ingredients:

Aggregation - so that deliverables reflect group judgment to smooth the fluctuations in information quality
Diversity - cognitive diversity is what makes a group smarter - sociological diversity isn't enough
Individuality - because people facing the same direction don't realise when they make the same mistakes

I dare you defy mediocrity. Trust in the group smarts of your team.

The Best of British

2008-08-03T04:15:00.020+01:00

I'm in Toronto for Agile 2008 with Pascal Van Cauwenberghe to present two sessions: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall... Why Me? and Les Neuf Cases (known as 'The Nine Boxes'). Being away from home is great because it gives me time and distance to reflect on my Agile Enablement gigs both past and present.

Nothing is Impossible
Imagine. You're a new recruit for the first Agile team in your global organisation. It's Day 6 of your first ever iteration. The team has been working late for the past couple of evenings. The team believes things can change. The team's doing their best to deliver.

(The open plan office is empty but for the one team still busy at work.)
Coach: A core Agile principle is sustainable pace.
Team: (Silence)
Coach: Deathmarching isn't agile.
Developer: (Silence. Then) Everyone outside the team is watching. (Long pause) They want us to fail.
Team: (Stoic silence)

One Ring to Rule Them All
The next day, I speak to the project manager on the team and raise the issue of the pressure the team feels they're under. 'There are others in the organisation who want us to fail,' I say. He remains silent but for a moment then replies with a bold smile, 'That's because they're afraid of what will happen when we succeed.' We both knew then that success was by no means certain. What we were certain of, however, was that the team would try their hardest to make it a success.

That was a defining moment for everyone on the team. Their stoicism was something so much stronger than an individual's desire to prove others wrong. This was camaraderie in action, each member united with one another by the weightiest of burdens they were helping to carry. Hope. The hope that things can change for the better.

Hate Something, Change Something,
Make Something Better

Over the next few days after my conversation with the team on that fateful summer evening, the team started leaving work on time. They understood that working late was merely hiding problems due to the way teams have always worked in their organisation. They knew that becoming agile meant maintaining a sustainable pace and addressing difficult problems head on instead of working longer hours.

Never Say Never
Fast foward to the end of the three-iteration-long release. The technical lead who reviewed the code delivered described the quality as 'some of the highest quality code' he'd ever seen. After four weeks in end-to-end testing, only one defect was found.

It's a humbling experience to work alongside folks determined to learn and change in spite of being surrounded by a sea of cynicism and resistance. That's what makes my heart sing as an Agile coach. Do something that makes your heart sing. Today.

Much Ado About Something

2008-07-10T18:21:00.007+01:00

Eliyahu Goldratt is an angry old man. He's not that old per se, but he is surprisingly angry for someone who's been making his fortune from IT since the early 80s.

Goldratt is best known as the originator of the Theory of Constraints. He was one of the impressive trio of guest star speakers at Université du SI in Paris last week (the other two being French philosopher Michel Serre and the first man on the moon Neil Armstrong). To my surprise, Goldratt was the wildcard of the bunch.

What got us here won't get us there
'Technology should give us unbelievable results,' began Goldratt as a matter-of-fact. 'Why is it then that we have such amazing processing power and no astonishing results?' he demanded of the developers, Agilists and academics before him.

According to Goldratt, each organisation is haemorrhaging to death because of a clot in its processes. Organisations existed before computers, therefore the limitations we're experiencing existed before computers.

The problem is that the old rules for getting things done were based on localised islands of information because that used to be all the information available at the time. Now that the game has changed, the rules aren't just out-of-date, they're wrong.

An even bigger problem is that the antiquated rules become set in stone when they are reincarnated as a software system. The result: we make more mistakes faster which result in spiralling costs and inevitable failure if we don't revise the rules first.

J'accuse!
Unlike Michel Serre, who employed pure rhetoric to make a similar point about making the most of one's ability, Goldratt chose to lambast IT professionals for being irresponsible and ineffective.

According to Goldratt, as IT professionals, we're creating our own boundary and limiting the success of our organisation. He urged us to go beyond our comfort zone and stretch ourselves beyond our immediate expertise. Goldratt demands we take responsibility for our organisation.

Lost in Translation
After Pascal and I ran our session to demonstrate the Theory of Constraints, a young man came up to me and asked about the relevance of our session at such a technical conference. I remember asking myself the same question after attending the same session at XPDay London run by Pascal several years ago.

'Because a developer can't deliver business value through coding alone,' I replied in French. 'By understanding how to improve the way your team works at both local and global perspectives, you can help improve your organisation's throughput by applying the Theory of Constraints.'

The School of Tough Love
Goldratt concluded that, in his experience, people are much better than we think. It only takes one person to change before others follow suit or risk losing out altogether.

According to Goldratt, the way to achieve an easy life is to take a hammer to your head whereupon you'll be spoonfed for the rest of your life. Goldratt says: Demand more of yourself. What will you choose to do?

Une comédie française

2008-07-04T00:16:00.016+01:00

There's a lot to be said about French charm. The crowd of witty, friendly and plain speaking Parisian Agilistas with whom I had the pleasure of dining twice this week has to be the highlight of my Paris visit.

Le lieu du crime
(Un clan d'agilistes dans un restaurant à côté des Champs-Elysées)
L.: Remarques, avant que je t'ai rencontré, j'ai eu l'impression que tu étais plus agée.
P.: (Petit sourire)
L.: En fait, tu es beaucoup plus jeune que je m'imaginais.
P.: (Encore un petit sourire)
L.: En lisant ton blog, je m'imaginais une petite vieille dame genre Miss Marple.
P.: (Silence. Et puis) Merci pour le feedback.
Tous: (Éclat du rire)

Crime Scene Investigation
(A group of Agilists in a restaurant just off the Champs-Elysées)
L.: Before I met you, I had the impression that you would be much older.
P.: (Smiles)
L.: The fact is, you're much younger than I ever imagined.
P.: (Continues smiling)
L.: In fact, I thought you would be a bit of a Miss Marple.
P.: (Stunned silence. Then) Thank you for your feedback.
All: (Loud burst of laughter)

Feedback continu et mon puzzle
Truth be told, 'Miss Marple' isn't exactly the look I was going for, but it's always nice to get feedback if only to know that my blog is being read. Call me an optimist. Paris je t'aime.

Être et Avoir

2008-07-03T16:18:00.015+01:00

'You have to be an optimist to be an Agile coach.'

A good Agile coach helps teams and individuals become agile through care, consideration and collaboration. What they do works because good Agile coaches believe people can change for the better. It's about putting people first.

WARNING: It feels like magic to those who don't care enough to work out what they need to do and get it done.

Paris Visite

2008-06-30T08:10:00.010+01:00

Lucky Number 3
I'm back in Paris this week, loaded with three kilograms of British sweets for distribution, ready to co-present three action-packed sessions on the Theory of Contraints with Pascal Van Cauwenberghe (co-inventor of the XP Game). It's also going to the third time I'll be co-presenting with Pascal at a conference this year.

A l'aide mon processus m'étrangle
Pascal and I will be running the session twice at Université du SI. Also present will be Eliyahu Goldratt, Bjarne Stroustrup and Neil Armstrong. Physics meets Computer Science meets Consultancy meets Space meets Philsophy meets Humanity. Wowser.

First Things First
We'll be kickstarting a week-long intense learning and collaboration endeavour by presenting the Theory of Constraints session at the XP France usergroup in Paris tonight. I'm very much looking forward to catching up with the usual friendly bunch of Francophone Agilistas!

The Apprentice

2008-06-21T21:11:00.023+01:00

'The best teachers make the best students.'

In my experience, personal agility is rarely tested in a corporate environment. That's why we need conferences to help us grow. Conferences are an ideal way to learn because they combine theory with practice in an unfamiliar environment. More importantly, they force us to exercise our Agile values: Communication, Simplicity, Feedback, Courage and Respect.

Type 1: International Conferences - Agile 2008

Agile 2008 is a set-based conference with a breadth of topics and renowned speakers such as James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds. Whether you're a novice or seasoned Agilista there'll be a great choice of sessions to suit your interests and learning style.

Type 2: European Conferences - XP Days Benelux and XPDay London

The Beneluxian crowd are well-known for their friendliness and innovative approach to session topics, formats and social events. First time speakers are strongly encouraged to submit. The XP Days Benelux Committee selects sessions based purely on the quality of proposals. Now you can't get more collaborative and fairer than that.

XPDay London will consist of predominantly Open Space sessions this year. It's a way of injecting innovation into one of the longest running Agile conferences. Watch this space.

Type 3: Technical Conferences - QCon and JAOO

Both QCon and JAOO attract an impressive array of reputable speakers. The majority of sessions are usually in the form of presentations rather than more interactive alternatives such as workshops. Tutorials are available at an extra cost.

Type 4: Conferences in a Foreign Language - Université du SI

Mainstream Agile conferences are becoming multilingual. It's great news because it increases our sources of learning and appreciation for different cultures. Agile 2008 has an entire track in French this year.

Université du SI is a conference with the most impressive lineup I've seen this year to date. Speakers include Neil Armstrong, Bjarne Stroustrup and Eliyahu Goldratt. It's the conference I'm looking forward to most!

Type 5 - A Random Course or Conference of Your Choice

It's good to mix things up a bit. Pick a course or conference you wouldn't normally attend and go. Treat yourself to some real options. Give yourself a chance to learn the unexpected. Most important of all, have fun!

Sound of Music Sing-A-Long

2008-06-02T08:01:00.011+01:00

A recent survey shows that birds don't bother singing in towns and cities because their song cannot be heard. Their country cousins, on the contrary, sing to their hearts' content even though there are fewer humans around to share their song. What makes your heart sing?

Enduring Agile

2008-05-29T01:18:00.024+01:00

'The team remains agile after the coach is gone.'

This is my ultimate acceptance test for effective Agile coaching. True Agile Enablement endures.

Whose line is it anyway?
I come across a number of Agile coaches who talk a lot about Agile. Agile is hard because it's the doing that accompanies the saying that makes a person agile. Nine out of ten coaches I meet are those who live by the mantra of Do-As-I-Say-Not-As-I-Do.

Most important of all, their kind of Agile doesn't stick. Teams may think they're agile for the duration of such a coach being onsite, but when the coach is gone, teams are left to make-do and make-believe a fuzzy, undisciplined and/or enforced form of Agile (originally adopted to appease a forceful coach) all on their own.

Give me an example
I recently met Rupert, a charming and personable Agile coach who prides himself on being a doer. He told me that because he was having difficulties with the testers in his client organisation, he had written a code of conduct for the testers so they can work with the rest of the team. A few weeks before that he'd been preoccupied with composing a code of conduct for the business analysts. 'And these are the rules for developers to follow,' says Rupert as he proudly points to a flipchart among the numerous flipcharts of commandments that now cover the team wallspace. Eat your heart out Laura Ashley. Forget floral, swallow those words.

Words, words, words
What about Rupert's team, I found myself wondering with mild anxiety. In my experience, a team has to come up with its own guidelines or manifesto through a collaborative effort. It's part of the initiation process towards becoming a team. What happens next is the enforcement of the manifesto which should come easily - so long as it originated from the team. Otherwise, the manifesto is yet another group of words with no more meaning than a company's mission statement, created by a small clique in a galaxy far, far away from the people who deliver business value.

Sock shop
When coaching, I compare Agile with a pair of socks. The notion of a good pair of socks is likely to vary from person to person. Some prefer pink and others blue while the chaussettes conoisseurs among us might wear Santa socks 365 days of the year. Nonetheless, one thing is certain: we all have a common understanding of what makes a good pair of socks. For instance, most of us would agree that a good pair of socks keeps both our feet warm and dry. Once we understand the purpose of something, it's easy to distinguish genuine function from fancy form.

Genuine Agile has collaboration built-in to make it last. If you’re living the Agile values, trust your instinct when it's telling you your Agile coach is wrong.

Postcard from Galway

2008-05-16T20:31:00.004+01:00

Why Exoftware?

So that on a beautiful summer's day I find myself cycling along the low road on one of the Aran Islands to spend time with the most diverse, smart, nice and fun bunch of Agilistas I know.

Top Picks for XP 2008

2008-05-16T19:58:00.006+01:00

The 9th conference on Agile Processes and XP will be taking place from 10 - 14 June in Limerick, Ireland this year. The programme has an interesting mix of Agile management techniques and technical practices.

Recommended Highlights

Mapping the Value Stream by Mary and Tom Poppendieck - because they're always a treat to listen to
Overcoming Resistance to Change by Dave Nicolette and Lasse Kosela - because I've heard much about both of them and have yet to attend a session of theirs
Test-Driven Enterprise Code by J B Rainsberger - because Joe's well-known on the Agile track and I would like to see Joe present
Coaching Self-Organising Teams by Steve Freeman and Joseph Pelerine - because Joseph's a great speaker and it'll be great to see Steve and Joseph pairing on a session
Open Spaces - because you never know who'll show up and how the sessions will turn out

Beautiful Ireland
I've already committed to presenting at a number of other Agile conferences this year, so unfortunately won't be able to attend this one. June's a lovely time to visit Ireland, so I hope you get to make the most of your stay!

Andon du Jour - Of Mice and Men

2008-05-14T22:45:00.005+01:00

Three Interesting Facts

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.
Most people spend more time with their colleagues in their lifetime (by being at work that is) then they will with their own family.
Most people's decision making is based on what they want most rather than what they fear most.

Plus Two Questions

How much do you care about what you're going to do today?
And what about tomorrow?

XPDay France: Une rétrospective

2008-05-13T22:10:00.017+01:00

La méteo
Il fait très beau et chaud à Londres aujourd'hui. Le beau temps m'a fait penser à XPDay France.

What went well

Rencontré des agilistes français sympas et accueillants
Joué le jeu d'espace de Real Options avec une soixantaine participants
À la recherche du temps perdu et l'avoir trouvé: FIAP me rapelle mi école mi auberge de jeunesse
Le dîner avec les programmeurs Erlang
Être invité à presenter l'année prochaine - l'ultime test de recette!

Énigmes

FIAP est entouré par un beau quartier même s'il n'est pas évident tout de suite
Les glaces me manquent pour tous les participants pour mieux fêter l'arrivée de l'été

Mon XPDay France idéal

Plus d'actions, moins de discours pendant les séminaires
Plus d'exercices pour encourager la création des réseaux parmi les participants
Avoir les salles plus grandes et mieux amenagées
Voir des OOMPs (Official One Minute Presentations) inventifs

Mille mercis aux organisateurs d'eXtreme Programming France pour une conférence chouette!

À la recherche du temps perdu*

2008-04-30T20:41:00.012+01:00

I don't get to go to Paris as often as I'd like, so it's a real treat to be off to Paris this weekend to present Real Options: l'ultime frontière at XPDay France on 5 - 6 May.

J'espère que vous allez nous rejoindre. À très bientôt.

* In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past

Once More, With Feeling

2008-04-28T21:19:00.026+01:00

Many thanks to the 28 individuals who chose to play the new Real Options Space game at Agile North mini conference last Saturday. Based on the retrospective feedback, we left folks with much food for thought. As usual, Pascal and I found that each time we play the game it makes us think more deeply about what Real Options really means.

What are Real Options?
Real Options is a decision-making process for managing uncertainty and risk. It's a simple and powerful approach that helps us make better informed decisions, as individuals and in groups, by understanding and responding to the psychological effects uncertainty has on our behaviour.

Real Options means:

You don't have to decide now (aka 'Decide at the last responsible moment')
But you know when to decide
Keep as many options open for as long as possible
Actively gather information until you have to make the decision
Only commit when you must or when you have a good reason to.

A Real Option:

Has a value
Has an expiry date or condition
Costs: cost of buying the option + cost of exercising the option.

You exercise an option only when its value is worth more than its cost. That's where the similarities of the metaphor between Real Options and financial options end.

Isn't that just common sense?
Yes it is! The problem is that common sense doesn't make it common behaviour. Take a look around you. How does your team or manager make decisions under pressure? How do you make decision at times of intense stress?

Uncertainty makes people impatient and afraid. Under pressure, people tend to 1) make the right decision, then 2) prefer to make the wrong decision rather than 3) postpone the decision until the last responsible moment which leads to ill-informed decisions that create problems later on.

Real Options reminds us that waiting is an option, too. The trick is to spend the waiting time on gathering as much information as you possibly can to better understand your options and, where possible, create new ones.

Real Options is difficult because it's an information hungry process. It requires effort and that's one reason why many people don't do it even though they know it's the best way to make optimal decisions.

How much is an option worth?
The value of an option varies and depends on time as well as context. Its value is what it's worth to you at different points in time. The key is knowing the relative value of an option in comparison to the other options you currently hold.

Give me an example
The Agile North mini conference is a good example of a Real Option.

Option value = conference for learning new stuff
Expiry date = deadline by which you have to sign up for the conference
Cost of buying the option = effort required to register (conference entry was free)
Cost of exercising the option = effort for travelling to the conference and giving up a Saturday afternoon to go on a space adventure

Real Options is not nonsense
Real Options is an optimal decision making process. Even though it's common sense, it's surprisingly hard to do.

One participant said, 'The game reminded me about the importance of a lesson I learnt 10 years ago on an orienteering course but never really sunk in.' To find out what that lesson is, come play the Real Options Space game (version français) at XPDay France next week.

Real Options is very simple in theory, but difficult to put into practice - especially at work or when people are placed under pressure. How can you use Real Options to make better decisions?

The Flawed Social Contract

2008-04-24T21:50:00.009+01:00

Imagine: You nip to the loo in an office building you're visiting for the first time. After washing your hands, you look into the mirror and what do you see? A see-through sticker with white writing.

'Bullying. Let's Cut It Out'
Five simple words. Words that send so many alarm bells ringing.

Who let the bullies in? Are they still here? Which teams do they work in? Do people take notice of the message? What difference does that one sticker make?

That's when I notice there are more stickers running along the wall of mirrors, each aligned above a corresponding sink so you can't ignore the problem. Or so you would think.

Cultural or Cuisine Differences?
It's lunchtime. I ask about the stickers as I tuck into the tasty weekly Indian meal. It turns out most people around the table don't really know what bullying means. So I change my question to one of the developers.

'Does Candy respect you?' I venture, bold and plain as the nose on my face.

'She's nice. She answers my questions about requirements,' he replies with a tired but sincere smile.

I meet Candy for the first time that afternoon. Candy's friendly enough. She smiles back, teeth clenched.

Communication without respect is worse than not communicating at all
In my experience, respect is the hardest value of all to live by, partly because you have to dig extra deep as it forms the foundation for the other four values. The main reason it’s the toughest to live by is because it's usually the first thing that most people abandon when the going gets tough.

What does respect mean to you? How would you rate yourself in terms of respect on a scale of 0 - 5 from lowest to highest? Respect begins by recognising, appreciating then leveraging the value each individual brings to a team. How would your team rate you on the scale of respect?

Agile Up North

2008-04-23T12:37:00.005+01:00

The Agile North mini conference is this Saturday. Why am I looking forward to it?

Get to play the new interstellar space game 'Real Options: The New Frontier' with co-host Pascal Van Cauwenberghe and Agilistas up north
Hear the latest stories on Kanban implementation from David Anderson
Learn about Kanban, Cadence and Flow from Karl Scotland

Question: What could be more enticing than learning and board gaming with a bunch of friendly Agile folks on a Saturday?

Answer: The fact that the organisers made entry free for everyone - sign up for your place here!

Andon du Jour - Quel miracle!

2008-04-14T23:32:00.007+01:00

It's Monday morning and what do I find? The 10 centimetres of railing that used to be covered in black-and-yellow sticky tape has been replaced by a metal casing like the rest of the stairwell railing.

Now's that's what I call a happy ending. T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U to the powers that be who made it possible. Who knows? May be they even care about quality - enough to get the job 'done'. Continuous improvement in action.

Paris, je t'aime

2008-04-12T12:20:00.026+01:00

Once upon a time
My manager said to me, 'The team thinks you're doing a good job.' After a short pause he declared, 'And I agree with them.' Then a longer pause. I suspected I was in trouble, but I wasn't sure what for. He continued. 'The thing is, I'm just not sure what it is you actually do.'

From Dawn to Dusk to Present Day
I'm reading a book described as an 'intimate portrait' of the current President of France called L’Aube, le Soir ou la Nuit (Dawn, Evening or the Night) by Yasmina Reza. I was surprised to learn that Sarkozy and I have something in common.

In a conversation with Yasmina about young people today, Sarkozy says, 'Ce qui est un problème c'est quand ils deviennent indépendants et pas gentils, gentils c'est le plus important.' ('The problem with young people is that when they grow up they forget about kindness. Being kind is what matters most.')

It's nice to be nice
That was the gist of the answer I gave my manager all those years ago when he quizzed me about why the team was convinced I was doing a good job. I remember glossing over how I did what I did because my manager graduated from the school of stick-and-carrot management (using the Command and Control Management method). He wouldn't have understood about consideration for others. I knew this because he had previously expressed concerns about my apparently 'weaker' style of management.

Although I couldn't openly admit to my manager that I worked on the principle of Putting People First back then, the team knew and that was plenty good enough for me.

Agile is all about values
Putting People First is also about Communication, Simplicity, Feedback, Courage and Respect. Most people I talk to about becoming agile almost always identify respect as the key value from which the others spring.

What's less well-known is that respect wasn't in the first version of the published Agile Values. Some say that respect was omitted because it was a given. Surely people know the importance of being respectful towards one another? But even assuming they know about respect, can we trust that they will always behave in a respectful way? Do you? Towards everyone? After all, everyone is valuable.

In a conversation with Pascal about the values at the SPA conference last month, we both agreed that there is a sixth value: Trust. I've seen trust, when combined with respect, empowers teams to grow beyond all previous prejudices and perceived limitations. Trust from a manager or team lead is crucial. Trust among team members is equally vital.

What did you do this week to improve the way you work? How can you show you trust your team more?

A Wintry Summer's Day

2008-04-06T13:06:00.010+01:00

London, 6 April 2008, 13.20. Everything is covered in snow. On my way home last night, I ask the taxi driver, 'Do you believe it's going to snow tomorrow?'

'I wouldn't be surprised if it did. It's happened once before, so it can certainly happen again,' he replies.

I can tell Richard is a no-nonsense kind of guy. He didn't seem the least bit worried about the uncertainty of the weather. He goes on to tell me he's already evaluated all his options come rain, snow or shine. He's a man unfazed by uncertainty.

And so I find myself faced with more questions than when I first started my journey home:

Dealing with uncertainty is something we Brits excel at. If we're used to the unpredictability of the British weather and have learned to cope with it, why can't we do the same with the uncertainty of projects instead of pretending that plans can be done upfront or that things shouldn't change? That way, we'll be leveraging all the knowledge, experience and wisdom we have when it comes to coping with changeable weather. It's what we Brits have had to live with all our lives. We're lucky that we get so much practice.
It's happened once before, so it can certainly happen again. It only takes something to happen once for things to change forever. It makes the impossible suddenly possible and, more importantly, acceptable. What's the one thing you can try doing this week to change the way you work for the better?

Andon du Jour - London Underground Part Trois - The Grand Finale

2008-03-29T20:18:00.018Z

Dear Reader, I'm pleased to announce that the case of the troublesome staircase has finally been resolved. The staircase was re-opened sometime between late January and February, albeit wrapped up in black-and-yellow sticky tape. Susie from London Transport never got back to me, but at least travellers could resume their new year's resolution of getting healthy by using the staircase once again.

If the staircase were a software application, then the sticky tape would be a testament to a poor design and even worse engineering as somebody somewhere probably decided that Test-Driven Development would be a) too much hardwork; b) not worth the while; c) TDD, what's that then? or d) all of the above.

I felt relieved then disappointed when I first saw the staircase covered in snaky yellow-and-black sticky tape. I figured back then that that was as good as it was going to get. That the tape was there to stay.

The tape was going to be testament to rubbishy British design and engineering everytime I used the staircase. 'At least you can use the stairs now!' I hear the optimists among you valiantly volunteer. And you would have been right.

So you can imagine my surprise today when I discovered the black-and-yellow tape had been replaced by a 'proper' solution: the tape has been replaced with metal casings that run along the length of the rail of the entire staircase. Well, almost.

It seems the team responsible for implementing the proper solution struggled with the use of their measuring tape which means that there's still around 10 centimentres of the railing covered in black-and-yellow sticky tape in one corner. I wonder what else that team is responsible for putting right. And what about the architects and implementers of the staircase design - what do they do now? Do they know about their design failure? Is this really a happy ending?