|
I don't expect everyone, or even a majority, of readers to agree. These are things I wish every Business Analyst (BA), Product Manager (PM), Scrum Master (SM), and Product Owner (PO) could know and take to heart.
1 - Developers are not assembling widgets on an assembly line. Adding more developers, especially after the start of a project, does not speed things up. In fact, it usually slows things down and delays delivery.
2 - Developers, and especially software engineers/architects, are professionals, not blue collar workers. Treat them like professionals, and expect them to act like professionals.
3 - Team leads for a project should be a senior software engineer with people skills, not a BA, PM, SM, or PO. And certainly not QA.
4 - Look at each project like a bus. Lots of different skills are going in the same direction, to the same destination, but there is only ONE bus driver - the Team Lead.
5 - Limit yourself to describing, in specificity, what you want (requirements), not how to do it. Leave the technology choices to the developers and engineers.
6 - Make time for thorough and detailed planning up front (epics, features, user stories, tasks, etc.), with most of those documents fleshed out by the Team Lead and whomever he or she chooses. Then be agile enough to revise as needed during the project.
7 - If coding has started, and the user stories are still ambiguous, then stop wasting developer resources ($$$) and finish the planning.
8 - Keep meetings to a minimum. Ideally, on Monday or Friday, meet with the leads and developers to look at what was done the past week, what is still being worked on, and what is needed to be worked the coming week. Then leave the developers alone and let them go "heads down" coding. That delivers a better result faster.
9 - A well-managed development team converses peer-to-peer when necessary, without need for a meeting. If a problem arises that developers within a team cannot solve, they will contact the team lead, and if the scrum master's help is needed to get outside resources, it can be handled then.
10 - Deep-six the daily scrum "stand ups". They are not needed, and only slow down work.
11 - If you cannot get rid of the daily "stand ups", at least understand what they are. The phrase "stand up" does not refer to actually standing up, like a bunch of little school children. It means to stand up your work before the team for examination and discussion.
12 - Don't go to developers directly without coordinating with the team lead first. Developers on a team need to be coding, not spending time so you can get some data bits for a report. In most cases, the team lead will get what you need.
13 - When a developer is interrupted for meetings or questions not directly dealing with getting code done, it takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours for the developer to get all the moving parts back in their mind so they can pick up where they left off. Software development is a complex work that takes a lot of intellectual horsepower.
14 - When deciding "we need a meeting" that interrupts developers, calculate the total cost in labor, and ask yourself if the cost is worth what you get out of it. Consider a team of 8 developers and one team lead, at an average labor cost (salary, benefits, etc.) of $100/hr. Your 1 hour meeting just cost $900 and delayed the project by at least 2 hours.
15 - An experienced team lead with business experience and able to describe the technical in non-technical terms can easily reduce the cost of a development team by replacing most, if not all, of what a BA, PM, SM, and PO does. And get it done better and sooner due to lack of overhead. If is far easier for a senior software engineer to learn the business side than for a BA, PM, SM, or PO to learn the software development side.
16 - Agile, Scrum, Kanban, agile frameworks, etc. are not recipes to be followed. They contain principles to be considered and used in the SDLC if and how they provide value. Just read the original Agile Manifesto and see how far today's agile has strayed from it.
17 - Look for generalists, not specialists, on the development team. Hiring specialists (those who work in the specific toolsets being used today) works for now, but not as technology changes. Hiring generalists (those who know software engineering but can adapt and learn whatever toolsets are in use today) gives you people who can efficiently adapt as technology changes.
18 - If you want to learn one new thing, learn what value engineering is.
These opinions are solely my own, and not necessarily those of any current or past employer.
|
|
|
|
|
There's a lot of good stuff in there.
why not a book?
Or at least an article?
I like #5 & #16 a lot.
Also, I took the advice of #18...
What Is Value Engineering?
Value engineering is a systematic, organized approach to providing necessary functions in a project at the lowest cost. Value engineering promotes the substitution of materials and methods with less expensive alternatives, without sacrificing functionality. It is focused solely on the functions of various components and materials, rather than their physical attributes. Value engineering is also called value analysis.
Key Takeaways
Value engineering is a systematic and organized approach to providing the necessary functions in a project at the lowest cost.
Value engineering promotes the substitution of materials and methods with less expensive alternatives, without sacrificing functionality.
It is focused solely on the functions of various components and materials, rather than their physical attributes.
|
|
|
|
|
Value engineering was a significant part of NASA in the 1960s, SkunkWorks in its original days, and in Rickover's Naval Nuclear Power. It has very useful applications in software engineering. One of the most illustrative is the "build vs buy" decisions made often in a project.
|
|
|
|
|
Still represents a master-slave relationship. I wear many hats and don't need a master even when I have to be a slave.
Or, main point: I don't need (want) a middle man to the "real" user.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
|
|
|
|
|
I am not sure at your point.
If your point is that on a solo developer project, you don't need someone to tell you how to do it, and you can wear all the hats necessary, then I agree with you. My OP was in the context of larger projects where a team is necessary. If I am not understanding your point, please feel free to elaborate.
|
|
|
|
|
This "list" (prescription) has been circulating for years; only the phrasing changes.
It makes you think change is possible, when it isn't.
Office politics. You will never be allowed to be "smarter", or make a bigger contribution than your PM, BA, DBA, whatever.
The result: grinding boredom while you wait for someone else to come to a bad decision; and then having to live with those decisions.
Most of the people "involved", except the lowest levels, don't really care whether a project succeeds if it doesn't directly advantage them.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
|
|
|
|
|
What you describe is the painful reality too many have to experience, including me on more than one job.
FWIW, I have been able to make this work in a few organizations. The largest pushback comes from BAs because of the very reasons you cite (the others do, also, but my experience was they pushed back less once they knew they were getting what they wanted).
One tactic that I used successfully was to pick a project that I convinced the management above the BAs would be a "trial run" or "proof of concept". Once management saw how well it worked, they expanded on its usage. That may not work everywhere, but it is worth a try.
|
|
|
|
|
Yes, of course there are exceptions; and I've experienced a few. Unfortunately, even the good is always followed by the bad: in-fighting about who gets to build a department around the new system (Director, couple of supervisors, maintenance programmers, librarian, receptionist, office space, ...)
We implemented a Revenue and Royalty System: REVROY.
I would later hear stories about people asking: "Who is this Rev Roy and why is everybody always talking about him"?
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
|
|
|
|
|
Gerry Schmitz wrote: Or, main point: I don't need (want) a middle man to the "real" user.
Sometimes a middle finger is better than a middle man, and that not always towards users / customers.   
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
|
|
|
|
|
A have been known to take a "superior" aside and tell them never to blind-side me in a meeting. No "or else".
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
|
|
|
|
|
I agree with most. 
MSBassSinger wrote: 10 - Deep-six the daily scrum "stand ups". They are not needed, and only slow down work.
11 - If you cannot get rid of the daily "stand ups", at least understand what they are. The phrase "stand up" does not refer to actually standing up
Actually, it does refer to standing up. Standing up is supposed to keep the meeting as brief as possible.
When done right, especially when in the US and using offshore developers, standups are very important.
|
|
|
|
|
You make valid points, and ones that are commonly known. While what you wrote can be made to work, there are some considerations.
20212 wrote: 10 - Deep-six the daily scrum "stand ups". They are not needed, and only slow down work.
If the developers cannot be trained to communicate directly with each other and/or the the team lead in a timely manner, when necessary, then I agree with you. Teams that I led, I was able to get my team members to limit the time they spent trying to solve a problem, or if something was unclear, and contact a fellow developer or me directly, instead of holding the problem over for a stand up. What I found was that when my team had adopted the peer-to-peer communication model, stand ups were no longer providing a value, and the weekly meeting was almost always the only one needed. And because problems were resolved faster, we as a team could finish faster.
20212 wrote: 11 - If you cannot get rid of the daily "stand ups", at least understand what they are. The phrase "stand up" does not refer to actually standing up
I have heard the reason you cited from a lot of scrum masters, as that was what they were taught. However, it is more like an excuse thought up to justify the standing, and it is true that standing people speak for shorter periods. The trouble with that is 1) that there is no reference to stand ups in the Agile Manifesto; 2) that sometimes good information can be lost because no one wants to stand that long; and, 3) at least in the US, requiring members to stand would very easily be a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as standing is difficult for some people, and by allowing them to sit while others stand merely accents them as disabled persons, and would also likely be an ADA violation. I looked into the subject a few years ago, and the actual meaning of a "stand up" was as I stated - to stand up your work, not your body. When I did manage our team's standups, if someone took too long without cause, I gently reminded them to speed it up.
This discussion shows that it is not common nor standard to physically stand up, but it is not specifically prohibited. I can't remember the specific source, but it was about daily stand up meetings in a manufacturing context, where one's work was stood up for examination. That context made a lot of sense to me, and what I would seed when I worked in manufacturing.
Is standing up required during the Daily Scrum? | Scrum.org[^]
I agree that you can get it to work, and perhaps work better than other things you have tried. But consider that not standing, and expecting professional behavior from your staff, might even work better than what you do now.
modified 24-Feb-21 15:51pm.
|
|
|
|
|
MSBassSinger wrote: nd the actual meaning of a "stand up" was as I stated
Not sure of your source but clearly different then all of our sources.
Regardless, standups worked great for us. And no one actually stood. The point is, do what works for you.
|
|
|
|
|
This deserves a more permanent place than the Lounge.
At least on your Profile page, at the bottom, as something which others can more easily bookmark.
|
|
|
|
|
Thank you. I will look into that. Assuming I don't get "cancelled" by a BA somewhere. 
|
|
|
|
|
MSBassSinger wrote: 2 - Developers, and especially software engineers/architects, are professionals, not blue collar workers. Treat them like professionals, and expect them to act like professionals.
Surely, we should all be treated the same! Our aim should be to treat blue-collar/any-collar/no-collar workers how we would like to be treated ourselves. Not to look down on them and expect preferential treatment. Your job, salary, bank-balance, house doesn't give you the right to be treated better than anyone else.
|
|
|
|
|
My statement was not in the context of "looking down" on anyone. You should know, perhaps, that I had my first job working in the fields at 13 years old. I have since worked, full time, as a bagboy, machinist's mate, drill press operator, welder, electrician, pipefitter, among other blue-collar jobs. I look back on cropping tobacco and cleaning bilges, and I am always reminded not to look down on anyone. I think you misunderstood the context.
Thanks for sharing your point of view, though.
|
|
|
|
|
MSBassSinger wrote: The phrase "stand up" does not refer to actually standing up, like a bunch of little school children. It means to stand up your work before the team for examination and discussion.
All these years I/we/our team took "standup" as to mean, the meeting is supposed to be so quick that you don't need to sit down (15-20 mins tops, based on team size).
A standup meeting is this (per person on the team): state the following: What work I just finished, what I am working on now, and if I have any road blocks. If there are road blocks, then identify who on the team can help clear the roadblocks.
I have never, ever known a standup meeting to be presenting my work to the team for examination.
------------
A lot of key points you listed. most I agree with completely, some not so much.
Thanks for posting.
|
|
|
|
|
Quote: presenting my work to the team for examination.
Yes, that is called a Code Review and has nothing to do with the stand up. I have found the stand-ups very useful. No stand-up went beyond 15 minutes for the entire team and often was done in 5 minutes or less.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
|
|
|
|
|
Which, of course, is not what I meant. On teams I have run, we worked our way out of daily standups (redeeming the time for actual productive work), so it would be moot for my teams anyway.
|
|
|
|
|
Slacker007 wrote: so quick that you don't need to sit down (15-20 mins top
That, in and of itself, can be an ADA violation, and drive off a team member who has difficulty standing. If your team members are so undisciplined that simply asking them to keep it "short and sweet" doesn't work, then perhaps there is a separate problem that needs addressing.
Slacker007 wrote: state the following: What work I just finished, what I am working on now, and if I have any road blocks. If there are road blocks, then identify who on the team can help clear the roadblocks.
Hence the definition of "standing up your work" for examination. I did not mean, by "standing up your work", a demo, since what I wrote was in the context of a short scrum meeting. What you wrote also speaks to training team members not to sit on roadblocks or even hindrances until a scrum meeting, but to reach out in real time for help when needed. Think of the accumulated time you gain back that would have been wasted by waiting for the next scrum meeting.
I appreciate that you took the time to respond, and if my choice of words and phrasing was not clear, I apologize.
|
|
|
|
|
MSBassSinger wrote: That, in and of itself, can be an ADA violation, and drive off a team member who has difficulty standing. If your team members are so undisciplined that simply asking them to keep it "short and sweet" doesn't work, then perhaps there is a separate problem that needs addressing.
Overreacting a bit with this comment, don't you think?
We have multiple team members with various disabilities, which are accommodated for.
|
|
|
|
|
Slacker007 wrote: Overreacting a bit with this comment, don't you think?
No, not at all. Requiring a disabled person to stand, or even putting focus on the person that is excused from standing, opens the company to a significant liability. If that disabled person was motivated to do so, especially because standing provides no real value, it could cost the company a lot in a lawsuit.
The point is that standing up has no real benefit a software project when working with adults. Simply ask the group to be concise, stay within their time, and if more time is needed, take it to another meeting or discussion. I've been at this for over 15 years with agile (this is the 20th year of the Agile Manifesto, btw). I never had a problem with getting adults to work together to accomplish the purpose of a stand up, keeping it short, while seated. If standing is the style you prefer, then go for it. I would recommend talking to HR, if you have not already, to find out how to mitigate liability. I am sure the HR folks and their lawyer can figure out some way to protect the company.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yes. Yes. So much yes.
Although I wonder if the train to treat developers as professionals has already left. After 30 years of being treated like janitors, I don't know if younger developers even know what it is like to act as professionals.
|
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
