(This is a re-post from my LinkedIn page in 2019.)
Something went missing on the way to Agileland.
A step got lost.
I was in conversation about this a few weeks ago and a bright coworker of mine, Carson Kerr, said it does make sense to drop unneeded steps but if you are on the way to the operating room are you willing to let the doctor skip the hand washing and other OR prep to get that surgery faster? That speed could come at a price you did not expect. Super insightful.
Agile was meant to reduce time and cost to market because software development is expensive. Done well it works.
When we left Waterfall we took a look at Requirements Gathering and found a way to make that iterative.
Development…iterative.
Deployment…iterative.
Design…we forgot to OR prep.
If you are currently having your developers code everything they think might work with no design and model verification iteratively, your development is likely coming in at much higher costs than required.
Want iterative design? Paul Rayner explains it well. He will travel to the four corners of the Earth and the depths of the jungle to help your team learn to design first then develop.
Without it, the cures will often bring more disease.
Watch Paul’s talk here: