An argument for "Doing it right" before "Doing the right thing"

1. allan kelly
Twitter: @allankellynet
http://www.allankelly.net
Do it Right
Then
Do the Right thing
NDC Oslo
June 2013

2. Allan Kelly
97 Things Every Programmer Should
Know
Henney, 2010
Context Encapsulation in
Pattern Languages of Program Design
Volume 5, 2006
Business Analysis
and Leadership:
Influencing
change
Penny Pullan &
James Archer
2013
 Consulting software
development & strategy
 Training for Agile
Author
– Changing Software Development: Learning to
be Agile (2008, Wiley)
– Business Patterns for Software Developers
(2012, Wiley - ISBN: 978-1119999249)

3. Management commandment
Do the Right Thing
Then
Do it Right
I am here
to
challenge

4. I am not saying
Knowingly do the Wrong Thing
I am saying
You only know the Right Thing by
doing

5. Exhibit A - The Alignment Trap
Less
Effective
More
Effective
Highly aligned
Less aligned
‘Alignment trap’
11% companies
+13% IT spending
-14% 3 year sales
growth
‘Maintenance zone’
74% companies
Avg IT spending
-2% 3 year sales
growth
‘IT Enabled growth’
7% companies
-6% IT spending
+35% 3 year sales
growth
‘Well-oiled IT’
8% companies
-15% IT spending
+11% 3 year sales
growth
Source:Shpilberg,Berez,Puryear,Shah:
MITSloanReview,Fall2007
1
2
Doingtherightthings
Doing things right

6. Doing the right thing…
• Costs
– Money: £consultants, $analysts, €managers
– Time: Analysis, research, meetings, discussions
• Assumptions
– There is a right answer
– And it is knowable
– No value in wrong answer
– That wrong & right are definable

7. Exhibit B – Lean Start-Up
• Knowing is difficult
• Get into the market to
find out
• See what people will
$pay for
– Not just what that €say
• Doing need not be
expensive

8. Exhibit C – Changing (Me!)
• Its about Learning
• To Learn we must do
• How can you increase
the pace of learning?
Learning
Change

9. Exhibit D – He who learns fasters
“We understand that the
only competitive advantage
the company of the future
will have is its managers’
ability to learn faster than
then their competitors.”
Arie de Geus, The Living Company 1988

10. How do you learn fast?
• Do
• How do you do?
• Iterate
– Iterate faster
– Iterate more
• Learn
• Learn to iterate faster, learn to aim better

11. Ready, Fire, Fire, Fire, Aim, Fire, …

12. Choose your weapon
M16 from Dragunova via WikiCommons, Creative Commons License
L115A3 from Defence on WikiCommon Open Government License

13. Or is your choice more like….
M16 from Dragunova via WikiCommons, Creative Commons License
Berdan Sharps rifle via WikiCommons, Public Domain image

14. Which are you?
Your delivery (supply) side?
Your business (demand) side?
(Ever heard about the M16 delivery team coupled
with a 19th century requirements process?)

15. Choose your weapon
Snipers Rifle
• Known target
• Clear shot
• Time to prepare
• Limited variables
Machine Gun
• Many targets
• Confused environment
• Time short – Action
required
• Many variables
• Frequently miss

16. Choose your approach
Sniper development
• Market is slow moving
• Market it known
• Competitors are slow
• Capital is scarce
• Development is expensive
• Risk of collateral
damage, e.g.
brand, individuals
Machine development
• Market is fast
• Market is changing
• Competitors are fast
• Capital is cheap
• Development is cheap (and
fast)
• Multiple failures, try again

17. Or do tools dictate approach?
“It takes a long time to reload and aim”
Therefore
“take time to make sure every shot counts”

18. Or your competitors?

19. Asymmetric warfare
You Your competitor Result
Stalemate
Toast!
Toast! (Slow)
?
?

20. Iteration is the key
• Get good at iterating
• Get good at iterating fast
• Get good at learning from results
– Test results with customer
– Test output in the market
– And Evaluate
Close the loop – evaluate
what you do & feedback

21. Let a thousand flowers bloom…
Get good at selecting those to keep - Cull the rest

22. Breaks are good
• Get good at….
– Knowing when to stop
– Stopping
• Technical has TDD, ATDD, BDD to stop
• Corporate breaks
– Portfolio management
– Venture Capital funding model
– Use a Dragon’s Den

23. You can’t see the future…
• You can’t know what will work
• Stop wasting time and money guessing
• Get good at probing – experimenting
• Conduct a lot of experiments
• Learn from experiments
• Stop those which “don’t work”
• Promote those which do

24. Iterate at all levels
Regularly Evaluate -> Set/change direction
Frequently Collect next -> Decide next
Most frequently Developer -> Release
• Build capability to iterate – and USE IT
• Use data gained from iteration
• Iterate your way to to The Right Thing

25. Allan’s
commandments
#1 Do it Right, Do it Fast; Learn & Iterate
#2 Fail fast, Fail Cheap;
Evaluate, Learn
#3 Invest in breaks;
Stop & Turn

26. Take-away
1. Fast iterations allow for
learning
– Learn to iterate fast
– Then iterate in the market
– Learn to evaluate & feedback
2. Fail fast, fail cheap, learn
3. Invest in breaks
allan kelly
Software Strategy Ltd.
www.allankelly.net
allan@allankelly.net
Twitter: @allankellynet