Are We There Yet?: A Story About an Organisation's Agile Journey by Tomić-Daly Karolina & Tomić-Daly Karolina

Author:Tomić-Daly, Karolina & Tomić-Daly, Karolina [Tomić-Daly, Karolina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

10

Records Are Broken When You Collaborate

Agile’s sixth principle says, ‘Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.’

To Sustain Motivation, You Must Deliver at a Constant Pace

“I’m not sure this is working out with Bill at the helm,” said David. “The team are motivated, and we’re working well with the customer on the whole, but there is still friction between us. Mostly from the customer, to be honest. Sometimes they complain about us not delivering on time, and then other times they aren’t ready for what we do deliver. The whole team is getting frustrated.”

“It’s natural to have teething problems, David. The team are switching up how they work,” said Karen.

“I know, but I’m not sure how sustainable this is.”

“It’s because they are used to working to waterfall methodology. They are trying to combine the two, and need to learn how to do this successfully. I think the problem is pace.”

“What do you mean?”

“The usual course of project management is to be set expected outcomes with a known timeframe. The project kicks off relaxed, because you’ve got six or seven months until delivery is required. As the deadline gets closer, the team realises just how much work is left to do. They speed up, work longer hours, and often miss the deadline, or fail to deliver all that was promised at the outset.”

“Which is why we’re moving to an Agile environment,” David interjected.

“Quite. But your team is guilty of treating each sprint like a waterfall. Which means they sometimes underdeliver and sometimes overdeliver.

“Have you ever heard of Sir Roger Bannister?” Karen asked.

“The four-minute mile runner? Of course.”

“He’s an excellent example of maintaining a constant pace to achieve the desired result.

“Many think that Bannister ran an exceptional last lap, and that was how he managed to break the four-minute barrier. But that’s not true. In fact, his last lap was slightly slower than his first lap. His lap times were 58 seconds, 60 seconds, 63 seconds, and just under 59 seconds. Remarkably consistent.”

“He had some pacemakers helping him, too,” said David.

“All good runners. They had spoken before the race to decide strategy. Despite the amount of training that Bannister had put in over the years, without that collaboration he probably wouldn’t have become the first to run a mile in under four minutes.”

“So, collaboration and strategy are key.”

“Absolutely, David. And failure, of course.”

“Failure? But Bannister broke the barrier.”

“Not before he had failed. On several occasions. In fact, he was so disappointed with coming fourth in the 1,500 metres final at the 1952 Olympics, that he considered quitting athletics altogether.

“He decided to stick with running, though, and set himself the target of running sub-four minutes for the mile. He failed on more than one occasion to run under four minutes.

“Eventually, he realised that he needed others around him to help him, and divided the race into four ‘sprints’. By doing this, he was able to measure himself against the times needed continuously and maintain a steady pace to his goal.

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