Lean Software Development, or Agile, still has lot’s of enemies in the world of traditional Software Development. One would think that in the past few years the grounds would have been flattened, the road would be smooth as silk. Unfortunately this is not always the case.
The main reason for this is that people still are scared of what they don’t know (or, as the Dutch say, ‘A farmer doesn’t eat what he doesn’t know’). And this is not weird. In our industry we’re so used to be planning and managing in order to predict, it’s scary to let this go. And change is always a scary process.
Often people tell me, within projects, that they are pragmatic. But when it comes to a point where we actually need this approach, the same people tend to dive away behind rules and procedures. This is, because of the scary part of being pragmatic, we can’t predict what comes.
In Agile Software Development we want to create, this is the main goal. Prediction costs time and in that same time we can develop an entire system. This means faster change, but also an unpredictable outcome. This is, for me, not an undesirable effect. While we develop, we gather insight. Some people simply want this insight on forehand.
How can we change this? What is a simple way of convincing people that predicting isn’t always a good thing? What do you think that is the reason why people are (still) scared about this?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree upon your very interesting observation that most people are scared of projects without predictions. For me this is just a fact and next to that I’m convinced that prediction is not only a bad thing most of the times but also impossible. Convincing people of tis point of view seems to be a waste of time. So I think the best thing to do is to act as if you can predict the course of a project and then manage the expectations of the people concerned during the project according to the new points of view.
Hi Harry!
Thanks for your comment.
So, if I understand correctly, you suggest not to convince the customer, but to manages their expectations during the project. How do you do this yourself? Any hints?
Thanks!
Douwe Pieter