4 ms·

Yes, small releases are a huge part of making this work. "We can't do short iterations because iterations are so much work!" is the core of resistance. Somethin

by beat 8y ago

Yes, small releases are a huge part of making this work. "We can't do short iterations because iterations are so much work!" is the core of resistance. Something's going to go wrong, and we have this heavy bloated religious "deployment" ceremony with ten people on a call for six hours and how on Earth could we do that once a week? Yeah. We can't do short iterations because of all the crap we do because we do long iterations. I'm always paraphrasing Kent Beck... if you can't write your requirements on a card, you need to use a smaller card.

numbsafari 8y ago
If we can all agree that "shipping" is a feature[1] and that "shipping faster" is a competitive advantage, then "shipping fast" is probably one of the first features we should invest in as a team, from leadership to private chef. If it takes 10 people and six hours to accomplish the release of even the smallest of features, then it sounds like there's a bug with your "ship fast" feature and the team should invest some or all of its resources in fixing that. You probably can't do it over night, but you gotta chip away at it over time at the very least. If you are looking for justification backed up by real world numbers, I highly recommend the book "Accelerate" by Nicole Forsgren, et.al.[2] [1] https://a16z.com/2014/04/16/shipping-is-a-feature-some-guiding-principals-for-people-that-build-things/ https://a16z.com/2014/04/16/shipping-is-a-feature-some-guidi... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Accelerate-Software-Performing-Technology-Organizations/dp/1942788339/ https://www.amazon.com/Accelerate-Software-Performing-Techno...
- beat 8y ago
  Yeah, I know. And I've read the book. But I work in enterprise devops. This is the reality of many, many teams. Which means there's a lot of unnecessary process that needs to get tossed and a lot of automation that needs to be built in order to do short iterations and get out of the 3-6 month window.
  - numbsafari 8y ago
    Me too! I feel your pain. Have you considered giving it as a gift to your peers and leadership? I really think it's a great read and resource for anyone trying to sell organizational change. I wonder if any of those "automation needs" could be turned into startup ideas?
    - beat 8y ago
      Done that, too. I actually tried a startup in the monitoring space, but sadly failed (it was great fun losing $100k or so, tho... well worth the experience!). But the automation needs problem is more a consultancy thing than a product thing. There are lots of products. Teams buy them, with the best of intentions. Lots of management wants to believe they can buy their way out of the hard problems of not having any discipline. Sigh.

by beat 8y ago

numbsafari 8y ago

If we can all agree that "shipping" is a feature[1] and that "shipping faster" is a competitive advantage, then "shipping fast" is probably one of the first features we should invest in as a team, from leadership to private chef. If it takes 10 people and six hours to accomplish the release of even the smallest of features, then it sounds like there's a bug with your "ship fast" feature and the team should invest some or all of its resources in fixing that. You probably can't do it over night, but you gotta chip away at it over time at the very least. If you are looking for justification backed up by real world numbers, I highly recommend the book "Accelerate" by Nicole Forsgren, et.al.[2] [1] https://a16z.com/2014/04/16/shipping-is-a-feature-some-guiding-principals-for-people-that-build-things/ https://a16z.com/2014/04/16/shipping-is-a-feature-some-guidi... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Accelerate-Software-Performing-Technology-Organizations/dp/1942788339/ https://www.amazon.com/Accelerate-Software-Performing-Techno...

beat 8y ago
Yeah, I know. And I've read the book. But I work in enterprise devops. This is the reality of many, many teams. Which means there's a lot of unnecessary process that needs to get tossed and a lot of automation that needs to be built in order to do short iterations and get out of the 3-6 month window.
- numbsafari 8y ago
  Me too! I feel your pain. Have you considered giving it as a gift to your peers and leadership? I really think it's a great read and resource for anyone trying to sell organizational change. I wonder if any of those "automation needs" could be turned into startup ideas?
  - beat 8y ago
    Done that, too. I actually tried a startup in the monitoring space, but sadly failed (it was great fun losing $100k or so, tho... well worth the experience!). But the automation needs problem is more a consultancy thing than a product thing. There are lots of products. Teams buy them, with the best of intentions. Lots of management wants to believe they can buy their way out of the hard problems of not having any discipline. Sigh.