All Agile and No Common Sense!!
This is SO typical. Measure success with totally bogus metrics. Easiest to just jump into this example, which in this case is about moving from Traditional Software Development to Agile Development. You don’t need to be a Tech person to understand how this SIMPLE concept escapes SO MANY of those “smart” Tech People:
- Agile is process to streamline software development to accommodate Today’s rapid pace, web and mobile app services VS. the old Waterfall world where products were released one or two times a year, and in some cases once every few years. Remember when you had to install software on your computer!
- A lot of organizations are still moving from Waterfall to Agile via a set of Agile Processes. (Or accelerating that transition)
SO WHEN THEY KICK OFF THE PROGRAM, HOW DO THEY MEASURE SUCCESS?
There are 2 schools of thought:
- How soon before everybody is using the Agile Process (i.e. % of people using these new processes by target dates)
- Improvement in Time-to-Market for features, efficiency, effectiveness, financial performance
And guess who focuses only on #1? And makes #2 worse!!!!
A heck of a lot of people. Smart people!
And then finally, they start thinking about #2, years later — if they’re still around. The irony behind this story is, that if they can’t even design an Agile process, how can they design good products!!!!
Why does this happen? How did THEY miss this?
Firstly, many people DO anticipate this. But they were ignored. Why?
Because it’s REALLY EASY TO MEASURE AND MANAGE TO #1. Measuring and managing to #2 is MUCH harder. People will FIGHT you on it, because it takes more work and has less direct reward. It’s that simple. Furthermore they WANT TO BELIEVE what they are saying, and thus DO believe the work doesn’t need to be done, so no matter how smart they are, they will die on that hill. So the herd tends to always settle towards mediocrity — what’s easiest to make them look good in the short term.
That is unless you have a VERY STRONG and WISE leader (or can be that person). Who hires other VERY STRONG AND WISE leaders, who in turn…etc.
This is an axiom of running any organization
You need a very strong and wise leader, in particular to manage any complex project where success is NOT easy to measure.
This applies to SO many organizations. Where do we start?
There are actually tools available to VERY STRONG and WISE leaders to help them. One of them are ISO standards (and/or related principles) to enforce quality and accountability in designing any program and continuously measuring its success and improving the results over time. The VERY STRONG and WISE leader knows that many people use ISO programs to simply achieve MINIMAL COMPLIANCE. But the VERY STRONG and WISE leader knows that he/she must insist that COMPLIANCE is also used to achieve a high level of DESIGN AND OPERATIONAL ASSURANCE — making sure that the business objectives are achieved, and that includes MANAGING QUALITY AND RISK and ENSURING THE USER EXPERIENCE.
It’s incredible what kind of stupid and irresponsible shit smart people are capable of doing. It is usually because they are thinking in a very minimalist way about something they don’t enjoy doing or barely have time to do or aren’t get paid to do…and there is no ISO process in place to ensure focus and compliance. They don’t have a quality mindset. Here are some simple recent examples I’ve seen in my area of expertise, Cybersecurity & Risk Management:
- People didn’t back up an EXTREMELY CRITICAL set of cryptographic keys that could have bankrupted the company if lost. This went on for 2 years, even though they were repeatedly asked to confirm verbally that this was being done. They knew how important these keys were. Yet two different groups each thought the other was running the backups. Sounds like young kids not being able to coordinate who gets the ball in volleyball game, right?
- Designing a product without having a mechanism to securely manage cryptographic keys. The very intelligent engineers were not only familiar with quantum mechanics and were capable of implementing complex cryptographic protocols on specialized hardware with crypto acceleration engines, but they didn’t understand the simple concept that you can’t leave the key on top of the doormat!
Yes this kind of stuff happens ALL THE TIME with intelligent people!
Now apply this to something as complicated as the Federal Government! Our increasingly complex world REQUIRES ISO techniques just about everywhere. And this takes work, focus, and great leadership. No wonder our Politicians, Media, and Influencers distract us from our most critical issues, by focusing on things that are MUCH easier to argue about and elect people and ideas over!
So frustrating! You might share these feelings. Ugh! It’s hard for me to understand why I’m always the one promoting ISO. I think it’s because I work in specialized fields where success and quality are NOT easy to measure — Risk Management, Cybersecurity. Or maybe it’s because I’m trans — I have both an archetypical male analytic and competitive results driven side AND an archetypical female group nurturing, creative, and joyful side. And they work together very well. He’s taken a very long and fascinating path in learning to respect her as much as himself!
I think we all need to be more aware of this kind of struggle between these different objectives (cost vs. quality, short term vs. long term). Perhaps many of us are, but don’t know what to do about it. Perhaps you have a feeling of your not being able to change THAT! Well, there are ways….
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Check out my book about going Straight Male → Trans Female and the musical in development based on it: https://www.mariakonner.com/girl-shock-musical
And now I’m running for President 2024!:
