Steve Neiderhauser

Agile is a Form of Rapid Development

Some random thoughts about the Lean Software principle, Deliver as fast as possible:

Deliver fast does not mean work harder. It means work smarter. Leverage the power of software (automation, Object-Oriented techniques...) and Extreme Programming to deliver faster.

When Jeff Sutherland invented Scrum he intended that Scrum be used with object-oriented (OO) languages like Java and C#. That's because object-oriented languages have features that enable rapid development, allowing developers to respond to change and deliver working software by the end of the sprint. So you can view Scrum as a form of rapid development.

Scrum requires Extreme Programming's technical practices (TDD, Continuous Integration) to meet the goal of delivering software by the end of the sprint. A team is not considered Agile unless they can delivery working software that is potentially shippable by sprint's end.

Cross-functional feature teams are also needed for rapid development. Feature teams have all the skills needed to create and deliver the application. The work of the feature team will often result in an object-oriented framework that will help the feature team build software even faster.

Ideally, teams need to figure out how to deliver software so fast that stakeholders don't worry about the team's ability to deliver. Deliver fast is important because Amazon releases software to production every 11.6 seconds; this means Amazon has the ability to learn about customers at a fast pace. This is a key metric: How fast are your learning cycles?

In fast-moving organizations, the work is structured so that the people doing the work know what to do without being told and are expected to solve problems and adapt to changes without permission. This is the power of self-organizing feature teams.

10 Principles to Transform

Barry O'Reilly writes up ten principles to transform your company.

They are excellent principles and you should start acting on them now. Of course, Barry includes the always powerful Minimum Viable Product concept.

I want to focus on this principle --

Build in feedback loops with customers and users

Customer testing should be for breakfast, not dessert. If you’re not testing with customers as soon as possible to understand if their problem really exists and that your solution addresses it, then you’re wasting valuable time, effort and resources.

Guess what? If you create a minimum viable product and don't get feedback from a customer, you're still doing waterfall and wasting lots of time.

So from the start, test with customers and use human-centered design.

10 Tips to Boost Your Coaching Prowess

The Coach Federation provides 10 tips to advance your coaching skills.

Guess what? Silence is a skill. That's right, the ability to stop talking often allows the client to find the answer inside.

So tip No 3 is my favorite.

"Get comfortable with PAUSES and SILENCE. Key thoughts are brewing. Count to 10 before jumping in.

The length of a pause indicates the power of the question asked. Create strategic pauses and headspace for your clients.

To Be Or Not To Be, That is Learning

Reading a great book -- Leadership Presence.

The best line in the book?

A person does not gather learnings as possessions but rather becomes a new person... To learn is not to have, it is to be.

Self-Organizing Companies

Tony Hsieh writes a long memo to Zappos employees encouraging them to embrace self-organization. And if someone prefers a different approach, they need to find another place to work.

Why so serious? The world is changing fast and everyone needs to be on board for culture change to work.

NoNo the Penguin

If you discovered an entertaining method to learn the ways of a change agent would you jump on it. Because our world is moving faster and faster with each passing day, your answer should probably be "Yes, I want to master the art of change."

Lucky for you, John Kotter has written a story called Our Iceberg Is Melting. Its about a colony of penguins who learn their iceberg is no longer a safe place to live. How does this melting-iceberg-cute-penguin story help you?

Well, story is like a central IV to your brain.  Story delivers insights that help you navigate this ambiguous world. Professor Kotter deftly uses story techniques to capture your imagination and inspire you.

Let's consider one of the characters — NoNo the penguin.

How did NoNo get his name.  One theory suggested his first words as a baby were not "Ma" or "Pa," but "No, No."  This perturbing penguin objected to every idea Fred (hero of the story who wants to save penguin colony from melting iceberg) came up with to solve the melting iceberg problem.

I told a coworker about NoNo the penguin. He replied, "Yes, we had a NoNo at the last place I worked.  That guy hated new ideas."  I bet you've endured more than one NoNo during your career.  In the IceBerg story, NoNo is an archetype.  Story consultant, James Bonnet calls this the holdfast or threshold guardian archetype.

If you're unable to overcome the resistance created by a holdfast, you may not be up to the challenge or ready to receive the benefits of change.

Show, Don't Tell

For a change effort to succeed, you'll need to do more showing than telling. Here again, John Kotter's story delivers.  Instead of lecturing that demonstrations are more effective than a briefcase of facts, Kotter creates a scene for Fred, showing the future of the iceberg.  To prove the melting ice could fracture into thousands of ice chunks, Fred fills a bottle with water and leaves it out overnight.

At dawn's first light, Fred retrieves the bottle and displays it for doubting penguins to see.  Shock rocks the penguins. The bottle is broken and fractured.  This could be the fate of the iceberg, and the penguins. So they take steps to act.

The hidden message? Instead of reading facts, get your audience to see, feel, act.

Our Iceberg is Melting shows Kotter's 8-step process for leading change. The story provides a context for rapidly learning the 8 steps.  You may want to share the story with a small team, and then provide the story to the entire group that must change.

Stories like Our Iceberg is Melting will help your teams develop ambidextroius skills, allowing them to switch between a story that motivates and the details needed to implement change.

Three Ways to Benefit from Apple’s Software Investment

(Note: I wrote this in 2002 and decided to post it here because I've received a lot of questions about what language to use for iPad development.  More on that in my next post)

 

Recently, several investment analysts rated Apple Computer a sell.  I have not read their analysis, but recall that analysts are not always right nor do they always understand technology.

I remember one well-known analyst who recommended Sun during the Internet craze.  He considered Sun to be a solid investment since they invented JavaScript.  Not really.  But then again is there really any difference between JavaScript and Java.  According to Mark Twain there is "The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter — it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."

I tend to agree with Mr. Twain.  What's more, an understanding of technology tells us that Apple’s future looks bright.  Clearly their software strategy will play a large role in future success.

Software is the highest form of leverage a business can employ.  As you probably know, too much operating or financial leverage can increase a firm’s risk while reducing the ability to respond to changing business conditions.

Software leverage is the degree to which a company utilizes existing software in the development of new software.  Increasing software leverage reduces risk and enhances the firm’s ability to respond to change.  This is a paradox unique to software development, one that astute engineers take advantage of whenever possible by using objects.

The Subject is Objects

Object-oriented programming is a method of development that increases your ability to leverage software by reusing software objects.  Apple’s object-oriented frameworks provide trusted software that developers can use again and again.  Instead of releasing software applications riddled with errors, they can release solid new applications.

Software engineers at Next used existing objects to develop WebObjects.  WebObjects was developed in a relatively short time frame, but was also a

stable application server from the start.  Stability was derived largely from the fact that 70 percent of the software consisted of reusable trusted objects.

The same software frameworks used to build NextStep and NextStep applications.

Mac OS X uses many of the same software frameworks that were used to create the Next platform.  These frameworks along with many new frameworks are used to enhance OS X and create new applications.  Keynote, the new presentation application, was built upon software frameworks.  While building Keynote, additional objects were surely designed that can be reused by other Apple developers in myriad combinations.

The ability to use objects independently or in any combination is a rewarding way to invent products.  It’s like snapping together Lego blocks to create software.  You remember how easy it is to build a Lego house.

Apple’s Jonathan Ives tells us in a business article that other companies proffered job offers, but he has little interest in leaving Apple since all the necessary processes are in place to rapidly develop new products.

This is where the fun begins for many designers.  Once they've built the necessary infrastructure, they're able to derive immense satisfaction from creating hardware or software products rapidly.

The capacity to build software at light speed bodes well for Apple.  While objects are an interesting technical subject, how does this help you?

What This Means To You

Sure, the technology sounds cool.  How does it help you in business or at home?  Consumers are always asking, what’s in it for me? Objects are one of many OS X technical features that create user benefits:

• Enhanced versions of OS X.

• Steady flow of new applications.

• Reliable Applications

Enhanced Versions of OS X

Jaguar (the latest version of OS X) was developed in relatively short order.  The next version of OS X is due in the fall of 2003 - less than a year from Jaguar’s launch.  Apple's ability to introduce products rapidly creates a competitive advantage.

Users benefit from enhancements in several ways.  Tired of wasting your time deleting junk mail?  Use Jaguar’s Mail App to filter spam.

New Applications

iMovie and the other media applications are an example of some of the applications that have been developed for OS X.  Just as hardware needs an excellent OS, an OS needs application programs for it to have true value.

Many pundits believed that Next was hindered due to the fact that there were relatively few applications for the Next platform.  Apple is determined not to have that problem.  Evidence their latest application, Safari.  It is the fastest web browser on OS X and is only a beta version.  Other applications are sure to follow.

Reliable

OS X’s UNIX foundation and object-oriented nature make the operating system and applications more trusted and reliable.  You’ll spend less time pondering technical problems and more time solving business problems.

Summary

I have no idea where Apple’s stock price will be next year. Although, people who buy an Apple Computer will receive dividends for years to come.

Apple’s design philosophy creates options and leverage.  As long as Apple correctly positions products, they have the vehicle to drive significant benefits to customers.

Imagine the enormous investment Apple has made in software.  An investment that enables rapid software development that directly benefits OS X users.

What if you’re stuck on another operating system where the updates and benefits flow to you like blackstrap molasses on a Winter day?

 

Simply switch to OS X.

Confluence Wiki

Being part of a team that persuaded a company to start using a Confluence Wiki, I was delighted to see how effortless it was for people to start using Confluence  − Almost zero training.

Agents of change understand that easy to use means easy to change behaviors.

 

Agile Architecture

When I'm coaching Agile projects, people often ask how to handle architecture when all the requirements are not defined up front.

Scott Ambler gives us 13 Agile architecture strategies.  My advice is to pick two or three and start practicing them.  As you practice, your understanding will grow and embolden you to use many more.

 

Trends for Software Engineers

Global Knowledge lists 10 areas of growth for software professionals.  The skills for a software engineer have shifted to the following set:

Cloud-based applications will be big in the coming years, and that means software engineers will need new skills to design, develop, and implement programs that run in the cloud environment. Those who are familiar with Windows Azure, Google App Engine, VMware's Spring Framework, Force.com, and other cloud development platforms will be a step ahead of the game.