This document discusses the paradigms of the knowledge era and how they differ from the industrial era paradigms that influenced traditional software development approaches. It outlines five key paradigm shifts needed for the knowledge era: from repeatable to contextual processes; from process-driven to principles-driven approaches; focusing on the "touch time of minds" rather than tools; moving from supervised to self-managed teams; and shifting from measurement to sensing and sense-making. The document argues that knowledge work requires approaches focused on collaboration, communication and engaging capable people, as human minds are the primary engines of transformation when working with intangible knowledge.

1. Knowledge Era Paradigms:
Fundamental Rationale behind Agile
Agile India Conference
Bangalore, Mar 2016
Vishu Hegde
vishu@pm-powerconsulting.com

2. Why Knowledge Era Paradigms?
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Why? What? How?
Rationale behind
Agile Values,
Principles, Practices

3. Brief history of civilization
3
Agricultural Era
• Labour intensive
• Local
• Mass production /
distribution
Industrial Era
• Mechanization, Mass
production
• Globalization,
Manufacturingdriven
economy
• Product Design,
innovation
Knowledge Era
• Extreme
Globalization,
Anytime-Anywhere
(e.g. Internet)
• Knowledge driven
Industries, Economies
• Thinking, Collective-
wisdom
“Everything in this world is done twice – once in the Mind and then in the outside world” – Stephen Covey
Challenge in knowledge era is the first part – accuracy & speed of thinking, collective thinking

4. Legacy of Industrial Era
 Current Management, Leadership, Quality Management philosophies in Software
industry (e.g. CMM, Six Sigma, PMI) are influenced by the Industrial Era experiences
 Improper application of mass production principles to design/creation principles
 Knowledge Era products need a different approach on Quality, Management, Engineering
– Human centric & Knowledge centric
Industrial Era Product/Business20% 80%
Knowledge Era Product/Business20%80%
Design/Creation
Intensive
Mass-production &
Distribution Intensive
Management, Leadership, Quality Management, …
CMMI, Six Sigma, PMI, …

5.  What is the raw material for software?
 It’s Knowledge/ Idea
 Where does the transformation from raw material to finished product
happen?
 It’s in the Minds of people
 Computer is only a tool to capture & facilitate the thoughts
 How do we know then, how the transformation is happening?
 Break the transformation into smaller steps
 Bring visibility (e.g. pictures, documents, models, prototypes…)
 What is the measuring equipment to verify whether transformation is
happening correctly or not? (the calipers?)
 Another knowledge body (e.g. peers, customers, experts…)
 Collective wisdom (Peer Reviews, Brainstorming…)
 Knowledge Era Product Engineering
 From raw material to finished product, the object is not physical in nature. There
are no Laws of Physics governing the engineering principles, like in Mechanical
or Civil engineering
The Paradigm Shift in Knowledge Era

6. Knowledge Era vs Industrial Era Production Systems
Characteristics Industrial Era Knowledge Era
Raw Material
Transformation
Engines
Productivity
Interaction
The equation
Input Output
Intangible in nature: knowledge, Idea…Physical in nature
Machines: Stereotype,
Repetitive
‘Touch time’ of Tools
People: Idiosyncratic, changing
‘Touch time’ of Minds
People work around the
machines
People work with people (including
Customers) – High collaboration,
communication
Man-Machine-Material Capable People-Collaborating-with
Common Protocols

7. PARADIGM SHIFT 1
“Repeatable process to Contextual process”
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8. What is ‘Process’?
 Think of a phrase or sentence to describe ‘Process’.
 Typical responses:
 Set of steps to perform to get output from input
 Sequence of operations to be performed
 Standard way of doing things
 Repeatable tasks to be performed
 Clearly documented instructions to do a job
 …..

9. Game with Mathematics
1 1 1 = 6
2 2 2 = 6
3 3 3 = 6
4 4 4 = 6
5 5 5 = 6
6 6 6 = 6
7 7 7 = 6
8 8 8 = 6
9 9 9 = 6
Is this possible?
What Operations do you perform
to get this Consistent output?

10. Repeatable Process ??
(1 + 1 + 1)! = 6
2 + 2 + 2 = 6
3 x 3 - 3 = 6
√4 + √ 4 + √ 4 = 6
5 + 5 / 5 = 6
6 + 6 - 6 = 6
-7 / 7 + 7 = 6
√ 8 + √ 8 + √ 8 = 6
√ 9 x √ 9 - √ 9 = 6
f (x) = y
If ‘y’ needs to be consistent
while ‘x’ is varying,
can f() be constant?
333

11. Repeatable Process or Consistent Outcome?
ProcessInput Output
 In Knowledge Era scenario like Software, Input has high variability –
people, technology, project contexts…
 In order to maintain Output consistent, Process should change
Contextual
Process
Variable
Input
Consistent
Outcome
 ‘Repeatable Process leads to Consistent Outcome’ is an Industrial Era
paradigm
 Because Input is fairly homogeneous
 Focus should be on Contextual Process (not Repeatable Process) and
Consistent Outcome

12. PARADIGM SHIFT 2
“Process-driven to Principles-driven”
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13. How to ‘Manage’ when Variability & Diversity are
high?
 Productivity/Efficiency?
 Quality?
 Consistency/Repeatability?
 …
 Can we define ‘Rules’ and ‘Dos & Don’ts‘ for all possible cases?
 Values & Principles are the way
 Agile practices driven by principles & values
 ‘Simple Rules, Rich Relationships’
 Contextual Team-Process
 Innovation thrives in diversity

14. Defect Prevention context
 Most Defects relate to
Materials & Machines
 Number of Causes are
relatively less
 E.g. Poor Soldering
 Defect Fix is mostly physical in
nature
 E.g. Tune Temperature,
Voltage…
 Once fixed the machines stay
tuned
Industrial Era
 Most Defects relate to Human
Errors
 Number of Causes are relatively
large
 E.g. Poor Coding
 Defect Fix is mostly not physical
in nature
 E.g. Thinking, Communication,…
 Person’s characteristics
continuously change
Knowledge Era
One of the most important ways of Defect Prevention in Knowledge Era is taking
people through Experience/Learning:
– Learn & Adapt cycles in Agile; Short iterations; Retrospective

15. PARADIGM SHIFT 3
“Touch-time of tools to Touch-time of minds ”
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16. Mind Switch Game
 Round 1
 Keep a timer for 30 seconds
 On number 1, keep adding number 3 successively for 30 sec
 Keep a timer for 30 seconds
 On number 1, keep adding number 4 successively for 30 sec
 Note down the total count of numbers
 Round 2
 Keep a timer for 60 seconds
 On number 1, keep adding numbers 3 & 4 alternatively in two
tables for 60 sec
 Note down the total count of numbers
 Observe count dropping by about 50% in round 2
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17. Most important factor for Productivity, Efficiency, Quality…
Touch-time
of MindImpacted
Clarity, Vision
Emotions
Motivation
Positive
Energy
Workplace
distractions
Mind Capacity
Interactions
with people
Whoisresponsible?
Onus on
Individual
Onus on
Others
Family
Social
Managers
Peers
Subordinates
Customers
Partners
Onus on
Organization
Workplace Design
Organization Design
Org Policies
Self-Managed
Individual
Self-Managed
Team
-Time boxing
- Focus
- Scrum Master:
Prevent interference
Remove obstacles

18. Some Facts about Software Projects
 Studies have shown that :
 Almost 80% of Software Defects are human errors – oversight,
communication gap, lack of collaboration, distractions etc.
 Knowledge Workers’ Productivity varies as much as 25 times
based on their state of Mind
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19. PARADIGM SHIFT 4
“Supervised to Self-managed”
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20. Management/Quality is more Intrinsic in
Knowledge Era
 A Construction industry analogy
 A prominent construction company has different supervisory ratios
 One Supervisor for every 25 civil construction laborers
 One supervisor for every 10 mechanical worker
 One supervisor for every 5 electrician
 Moral of the story: Higher the skilled labor, higher the supervision
needed !
 For Software Engineering ?
 So, by deduction, one supervisor for one engineer !!!
 In other words, PRACTICALLY, each Software Engineer needs to be
self-supervised
 Self managed individuals , Self managed teams

21. PARADIGM SHIFT 5
“Measuring to Sensing ”
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22. What Moves the Iceberg?
Wind
Current
20% Visible part
80% Invisible part

23. What makes Projects successful?
Hard
aspects
Soft
aspects
20% Visible part
80% Invisible part
Effort
Schedule
Cost
Defects
……….
……….
Shared vision
Motivation
Team engagement
Customer engagement
Communication
Collaboration
Lagging Indicators
Effect
Leading Indicators
Cause

24. Measurement Considerations
 Because of idiosyncratic human beings as the transformation engines and dealing
with intangibles like knowledge, idea…etc., measurement is a challenge
 What we CAN measure are perhaps not very significant
 E.g.: Defect Removal Efficiency, Effort/Schedule variance, … - Mostly Lagging Indicators
 Those which are significant, are not so visible/measurable
 People experience, Motivation, Collaboration, level of engagement of people (‘touch time’ of
mind)
 Sensing & Sense-making is more important than hard measurements
 ‘If you can't measure, you can't manage’ is an Industrial Era paradigm
 Focus on Visual Management in Agile
Wind
Current
What moves the Iceberg?

25. Fundamentals of Software Production
 In Software production we are dealing with
 Human beings as the transformation engines and
 Knowledge as the raw material
 ‘Touch time of minds’ is the key imperative for higher productivity
and quality
 Capable people Collaborating with Common protocol (process)
are the critical success factors
 Agile/Scrum practices harness these fundamentals effectively
 Agile methods are a good scaffolding to build Knowledge Era
Enterprises

26. Knowledge Era Paradigms
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Why? What? How?
If you understand ‘why’, you
can figure out ‘what’ & ‘how’
easily in all situations

27. Thank You
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