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This harmonises well with my career experience, and I could cite multiple examples from just the last few months without even thinking about it. (I'm not going

This harmonises well with my career experience, and I could cite multiple examples from just the last few months without even thinking about it. (I'm not going to because the project is ongoing.) We waste so much time explaining and justifying things to people that they're just never going to get when we'd be much better off building even a minimal experience for them so they can get it. Of course, if you try to explain this to the people concerned they still look at you like you're from Mars and complain that we "can't" work like that. It's deeply frustrating. I absolutely loved the line about becoming independently wealthy so he has time to get some work done.

andor 8y ago
if you try to explain this to the people concerned they still look at you like you're from Mars and complain that we "can't" work like that The way that many companies allocate budgets for projects isn't very compatible with lean product development. Once the benefits of lean are understood, one might think that the budgeting process could be changed. But yeah, the way that companies (do not) critically think about their established processes is also not very compatible with lean ;-) Economics to the rescue, a language that companies should understand. Assuming same odds of success for each project, it's way less risky to fund many small projects compared to just a few large projects. Well explained here: https://youtu.be/2zYxWEZ0gYg?t=452 https://youtu.be/2zYxWEZ0gYg?t=452
andor 8y ago
To be fair, "the people concerned" might themselves not have the authority to just diverge from the process. The lesson to learn is that rigid processes don't work too well in creative fields such as software development. Every company wants to be innovative, i.e. come up with better ways to do things. The innovation will most likely not come from management, because they are busy doing management stuff to keep the company running smoothly. The good ideas will come from the employees that spend most of their time actually working on the subject. If a process prevents these employees from taking what they think is the best decision, then there needs to be a conversation about that process. Rather than specify how to work, companies should focus on goals and have those goals shared across the organization: "We want to build the best possible product." The goals should inform everything else, because how can anything be more important than building the best product? If it's clear that a process is in the way, people should be empowered to change it. Which is the point of agile: setting up your organization as a system that allows teams to do the right thing.
itronitron 8y ago
this is why annual internal hackerfestathons are so successful in some companies. "Hey Joe, Look at what cool things our developers/designers can do without us!"

andor 8y ago

if you try to explain this to the people concerned they still look at you like you're from Mars and complain that we "can't" work like that The way that many companies allocate budgets for projects isn't very compatible with lean product development. Once the benefits of lean are understood, one might think that the budgeting process could be changed. But yeah, the way that companies (do not) critically think about their established processes is also not very compatible with lean ;-) Economics to the rescue, a language that companies should understand. Assuming same odds of success for each project, it's way less risky to fund many small projects compared to just a few large projects. Well explained here: https://youtu.be/2zYxWEZ0gYg?t=452 https://youtu.be/2zYxWEZ0gYg?t=452

andor 8y ago

To be fair, "the people concerned" might themselves not have the authority to just diverge from the process. The lesson to learn is that rigid processes don't work too well in creative fields such as software development. Every company wants to be innovative, i.e. come up with better ways to do things. The innovation will most likely not come from management, because they are busy doing management stuff to keep the company running smoothly. The good ideas will come from the employees that spend most of their time actually working on the subject. If a process prevents these employees from taking what they think is the best decision, then there needs to be a conversation about that process. Rather than specify how to work, companies should focus on goals and have those goals shared across the organization: "We want to build the best possible product." The goals should inform everything else, because how can anything be more important than building the best product? If it's clear that a process is in the way, people should be empowered to change it. Which is the point of agile: setting up your organization as a system that allows teams to do the right thing.

itronitron 8y ago

this is why annual internal hackerfestathons are so successful in some companies. "Hey Joe, Look at what cool things our developers/designers can do without us!"