This document discusses the importance of iterative development and learning. It argues that the best way to determine the right approach is through fast, frequent experimentation and evaluation of results. Doing things quickly and cheaply through iterations allows an organization to learn faster than its competitors. If an approach isn't working, it should be stopped quickly to shift resources elsewhere. The key takeaways are to learn to iterate quickly, fail fast and cheaply while learning from failures, and invest in processes that allow changing course when needed.

1. allan kelly
Twitter: @allankellynet
http://www.allankelly.net
Do it Right
Then
Do the Right thing
Agile on the Beach
September 2013

2. Allan Kelly
• Business Analysis and Leadership, Pullan &
Archer 2013
• 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know,
Henney, 2010
• Context Encapsulation in Pattern Languages
of Program Design, vol#5, 2006
 Consulting on software
development & strategy
 Training for Agile
Author
– Changing Software Development: Learning to be
Agile (2008, Wiley)
– Business Patterns for Software Developers
(2012, Wiley - ISBN: 978-1119999249)
– Xanpan: Reflections on agile (work in progress)
https://leanpub.com/xanpan

3. Management commandment
Do the Right Thing
Then
Do it Right
I am here
to
challenge

4. I am not saying
Knowingly do the Wrong Thing
I am saying
You only know the Right Thing by
doing

5. Exhibit A - The Alignment Trap
Less
Effective
More
Effective
Highly aligned
Less aligned
‘Alignment trap’
11% companies
+13% IT spending
-14% 3 year sales
growth
‘Maintenance zone’
74% companies
Avg IT spending
-2% 3 year sales
growth
‘IT Enabled growth’
7% companies
-6% IT spending
+35% 3 year sales
growth
‘Well-oiled IT’
8% companies
-15% IT spending
+11% 3 year sales
growth
Source:Shpilberg,Berez,Puryear,Shah:
MITSloanReview,Fall2007
1
2
Doingtherightthings
Doing things right

6. Doing the right thing…
• Costs
– Money: £consultants, $analysts, €managers
– Time: Analysis, research, meetings, discussions
• Assumptions
– There is a right answer
– And it is knowable
– No value in wrong answer
– That wrong & right are definable

7. Exhibit B – Lean Start-Up
• Knowing is difficult
• Get into the market to
find out
• See what people will
$pay for
– Not just what that €say
• Doing need not be
expensive

8. Exhibit C – Changing course
• Stating the Right course makes it harder to
change course
"Faced with the choice between
changing one's mind and
proving that there is no need to
do so, almost everyone gets
busy on the proof.”John Kenneth
Galbraith

9. Exhibit D – Changing (Me!)
• Its about Learning
• To Learn we must do
• How can you increase
the pace of learning?
Learning
Change

10. Exhibit E – He who learns fasters
“We understand that the
only competitive advantage
the company of the future
will have is its managers’
ability to learn faster than
then their competitors.”
Arie de Geus, The Living Company 1988

11. How do you learn fast?
• Do
• How do you do?
• Iterate
– Iterate faster
– Iterate more
• Learn
• Learn to iterate faster, improve your aim

12. Ready, Fire, Fire, Fire, Aim, Fire, …

13. Choose your weapon
M16 from Dragunova via WikiCommons, Creative Commons License
L115A3 from Defence on WikiCommon Open Government License

14. Or is your choice more like….
M16 from Dragunova via WikiCommons, Creative Commons License
Berdan Sharps rifle via WikiCommons, Public Domain image

15. Which are you?
Your delivery (supply) side?
Your business (demand) side?
(Ever heard about the M16 delivery team coupled
with a 19th century requirements process?)

16. Choose your weapon
Snipers Rifle
• Known target
• Clear shot
• Time to prepare
• Limited variables
Machine Gun
• Many targets
• Confused environment
• Time short – Action
required
• Many variables
• Frequently miss

17. Choose your approach
Sniper development
• Market is slow moving
• Market it known
• Competitors are slow
• Capital is scarce
• Development is expensive
• Risk of collateral damage,
e.g. brand, individuals
Machine development
• Market is fast
• Market is changing
• Competitors are fast
• Capital is cheap
• Development is cheap (and
fast)
• Multiple failures, try again

18. Do tools dictate approach?
“It takes a long time to reload and aim”
Therefore
“take time to make sure every shot counts”

19. Or your competitors?

20. Asymmetric warfare
You Your competitor Result
Stalemate
Toast!
Toast! (Slow)
?
?

21. Iteration
• Get good at iterating
• Get good at iterating fast
• Get good at learning from results
– Test results with customer
– Test output in the market
– And Evaluate
Close the loop – evaluate
what you do & feedback

22. Evaluation
Too often missing

23. Let a thousand flowers bloom…
Get good at selecting those to keep - Cull the rest

24. Iterate!
• Try something
– See what happens
– Learn, adjust, change
– Go around again
• If you can’t iterate
– You can’t learn
Doing Iteration Right is a pre-requisit for
Doing the Right Thing

25. Brakes are good
• Get good at….
– Knowing when to stop
– Stopping
• Technical has TDD, ATDD, BDD to stop
• Corporate brakes
– Portfolio management
– Venture Capital funding model
– Use a Dragon’s Den

26. You can’t see the future…
• You can’t know what will work
• Stop wasting time and money guessing
• Get good at probing – experimenting
• Conduct a lot of experiments
• Learn from experiments
• Stop those which “don’t work”
• Promote those which do

27. Iterate at all levels
Regularly Evaluate -> Set/change direction
Frequently Collect next -> Decide next
Most frequently Developer -> Release
• Build capability to iterate – and USE IT
• Use data gained from iteration
• Iterate your way to to The Right Thing

28. Allan’s
commandments
#1 Do it Right, Do it Fast; Learn & Iterate
#2 Fail fast, Fail Cheap;
Evaluate, Learn
#3 Invest in brakes;
Stop & Turn

29. Take-away
1. Fast iterations allow for
learning
– Learn to iterate fast
– Then iterate in the market
– Learn to evaluate & feedback
2. Fail fast, fail cheap, learn
3. Invest in brakes
allan kelly
Software Strategy Ltd.
www.allankelly.net
allan@allankelly.net
Twitter: @allankellynet