Why is Agile Software Development So Great?

At some point around 8 years ago, all the software projects I was involved in suddenly changed to use Agile development approaches. At the time, I worked for a large multinational that had decided this was the future across the company, and change came rapidly to us, though the company had been experimenting with it for years before that.

As a software development manager, the associated changes were moderately impactful to my teams and the way we worked. And there was certainly some trepidation as we adapted to this new way of working. But looking back, I see few downsides and a lot of benefits. I'm fully onboard the Agile train, and wouldn't go back.

Before this change, a product release involved a great deal of planning, resource allocation and tradeoffs many months in advance of the planned release date. And despite all the best planning, a high percentage of the intended content was typically late. Being late also tended to squeeze testing cycles, and the result was never as great as we hoped when we set out.

Agile didn't arrive unexpectedly, and in fact one of my staff had tried hard to get me to consider implementing it more than 10 years before that point. The Agile Manifesto made sense to me, but the details of Extreme Programming were challenging enough to keep me from jumping in too quickly. But the core ideas simmered and became more and more sensible to me over time.

One of the interesting things about Agile is that there's less real work for a line manager, whos responsibility becomes more limited to staff development and less about project control. As a result, besides coaching the team members to become better agile practitioners, I have had the fortune to be able to take on two different agile roles:

• As a Product Owner, I've had the opportunity to translate the high-level requirements from the product management organization into Epics, User Stories, etc. and work with Scrum teams to prioritize the implementation. I found this to be a tremendously fulfilling role, constantly striving to deliver the most real value possible.
• As a Scrum Master, the fun has been in coaching the team to better and more consistent performance one sprint at a time. Looking back, the team is able to take ongoing pride in the evolution of their processes to deliver better and more consistently over time.

As an experienced development manager, I can now look back at the agile projects with great admiration. With careful adherence to the values of Lean and Agile, the result is a far more predictable engine for product delivery than any of my prior experiences. Not everything you hope will get delivered, but you have early warning that things are off track, and you have the ability to prioritize the really important things to ensure they do get delivered, regardless of other things going off plan.

Oh, and you have the opportunity to quickly pivot the team to a different plan if business demands it.

20 Years Ago Today -- May 4, 1996 -- Day 26

Sat. 96-05-04 - Day 26 - 6° 34' S  136° 28' W  Log: 2,451nm

Awoken for my pre-dawn watch by about a gallon of sea water landing in my bunk, via the leeward portholes after a near breach. Thoroughly unimpressed -- my bedding, which was already dirty and damp, is now wet with salt water. The weather is overcast, humid and the seas are splashy enough that nothing will dry.

Add to that the fact that we ran out of fresh water today. We decided that instead of heaving to on the required starboard tack in order to run the watermaker, we'll try to make it to Atuona without.

I had trouble sleeping in the morning and when I napped in the afternoon -- not at all comfortable with the damp sleeping bag. Totally gave up on the bed sheet.

The bread I baked yesterday turned out OK, although a bit crumbly. Maybe the extra sugar was a bad idea, but it was sooo unsweet the previous time.

With only a couple hundred miles to go, both John and I are very ready to arrive. This overcast, damp weather's really bugging us. Where are the gorgeous days and nights of the NE trades?

Sailing above beam reach now to try to make sure we don't end up downwind of Hiva Oa. Dodger side panel and centre section are up and the foreward part of the cockpit is quite comfortably protected from the spray.

We collected about 35 flying fish off the deck this morning, all but one small -- the other was about 4" long -- the first of that size that we've seen.

Somewhat slow this afternoon after John put a reef in, but we're hauling ass now (0500Z). Moon rose at 0430, full or full + 1 day, and it was very pretty. Quickly retreated behind clouds.

For supper, John heated some chili, served with bread or crackers, peach halves and cookies. I washed up using only salt water and drip dry.

Still reading The Fist of God, and quite enjoying it. 

I've made a few life decisions in the past couple of days. First, I plan to get a PHRF rating and start club racing Covivant [my C&C 32], at least some of the time. Second, I've decided to find a part-time Masters degree program, starting this fall. I'm leaning towards Engineering or Computer Science, although an MBA is also a possibility.

No CDs.

[Ed.: Regarding those decisions:

• I did get a handicap and started racing Covivant in the year after returning home. And we're still doing it 20 years later... same boat, same skipper, though the crew changes over time.
• I did look into graduate degree programs, but failed to find one that interested me enough. I did manage to teach a software engineering course at BC Institute of Technology in the year 2000, though. My real passion was software requirements management, but I couldn't find a course focused on that [where was Grady Booch when I needed him?] Years later, I realized that Agile software development methodologies bring a better model for requirements management than any I'd dealt with in the structured/OO analysis/design world.  I'm now a firm believer in User Stories and a prioritized backlog instead of more formal requirements documents, etc.  As for an MBA, I had a couple of friends who did MBA programs in 2001-2003 period, and my conclusions were that (a) they didn't seem to learn much that I hadn't already learned in 15 years of software industry experience; and (b) neither of them was able to (immediately, anyway) move into a non-engineering role by adding a MBA to their resume.

...end Ed.]