Agile Besançon Informal Discussion Night

We had scheduled a discussion on lean for the 7th of this month, but due to low turn-out, we ended up talking about one member's frustration about software development--he stared by saying he was sick and tired of it... that in other professions, a person could reach a level of quality that was demonstrable and durable... take a look at quality stereo equipment, or a hand-made wrist watch. The stereo he has at home was built with such pride that they sent out the schematics for it with the packaging--they felt like if anything ever broke, end-users could get it back running with minimal effort the design was so simple. On the other hand, just taking a look at code he wrote a year ago makes this developer sick with code smells. Why????

We talked for about 2 hours on this and other subjects... we hope to see you at the next Agile Besançon event :

lun 1 fev, 2010, 19h – 21h -- Coding Dojo -- "beau code"
mer 3 mar, 2010, 19h – 21h

mar 6 avr, 2010, 19h – 21h

favorite lines from Peter Block's Community -- the Structure of Belonging

This book seems to apply to so many aspects of my life--family, political, work, volunteer efforts in the Agile community--Block begins the book by stating that we need to:

Transform the isolation and self-interest within our communities into connectedness and caring for the whole... by shifting our attention from the problems of community to the possibility of community

We suffer from too much individual self-improvement, and not enough connecting. We need to assume bounty, to be generous, to welcome the gifts of those around us, and find what we might build together... find what we want to create, together.

Organized professionalized systems are capable of delivering services, but only associational life is capable of delivering care.

It is care that we need... individual attention to giving what is needed, when it is needed, because we understand and value one another. Block says that just the very declaration of our desire makes it possible, for before anyone imagined it, it clearly wasn't possible that we would work on it, but now that we've stated our intention, there is a chance, that we could work on realizing this potential. Block goes on to cite some studies of Italian towns by Robert Putnam--apparently the towns that were more democratic, more economically successful, had better health, and higher levels of education, shared a common characteristic--what he called social capital. The citizens of these towns were more connected to each other. Putnam goes on to characterize different types of social capital--bonding (inward-looking) and bridging (cross-pollination), and demonstrates that the most important type of social capital for a community is bridging.

Peter Koestenbaum says that choosing to act upon our freedom makes us accountable, that freedom and accountability are intrinsically connected. In addition, he says that for those that hold power over others, the ultimate act of love is to grant their freedom.

How does Block build community? One meeting at a time--by forming small circle discussions, around a broad question, with a diverse cross-section of people. He asks us to focus on the future--not the past, not our differences, but our potential. He seeks small-scale and slow growth. We depend on people that choose to volunteer, rather than those who feel an obligation to show up (as in paid staff). Word choice is critical, because it is one of our only tools of relating--Block notes the difference between the "problems of community" vs. the "breakdown of community"--the second suggests that there is a loss worth reconciling. Personally I think this is a weak distinction, but may still be needed to complete the other tools he presents--focussing on possibility, looking forward, etc.

Block says that all acounts of the past are "Made up. Fiction." When we consider the narrator has necessarily left out some details, things that are important to other parties in the story, it can be liberating to agree. Though these stories are heartfelt, they can be both divisive and enriching... yet stories are one of the most effective tools for sharing. He invites us to find inspiring, hopeful, impressive stories about the future, that will help us transform those around us.

Block contrasts the corporate-driven marketing of fear, fault, and self-interest with that of community/associational relations. On the one hand, there is an idea that with more control, more laws, more police, a better economy, better press coverage, better leaders, that things would go better. On the other hand, Block advocates using our own power to be the change we wish to see in the world. When we look at what is in our own power, we can have a much greater effect than any paid service. When we choose to integrate with those around us, rather than to be insular and worry about our own survival, we increase social capital and restore community. When we restore the community, people are willing to make promises to one another, to help each other, and to be generous.

Why is it easier to raise money for earthquake survivors thousands of miles away than for the people living six blocks away that are having a hard time paying rent or keeping food on the table? Block says this is partially a result of projections--taking attributes that we deny of ourselves, and placing them on other people, e.g., laziness. What happens is we divide our local community, and lose out on the possibilities that come when we care for the well-being of the whole.

When we hear complaints of "why so few people are involved in the community", or hear people talking about "entitlement", it is time to invert the signs of despair. First, ask if there's something we're doing that is excluding some of the community. Then remember that true commitment is a gift, and can never be enforced from the outside (so no one is entitled to anything). When we have a true restorative community, people are not asking "what's in it for me"--they're giving freely. People have been summoned over and over to be part of focus groups, and then wait for the "professionals" to execute the plan. Instead we need to use these meetings as a way to engage citizens to carry out the plan themselves. In addition, the discussion needs to move away from problem solving, as that is often too mired in what exists now; for true innovation we need open-ended creativity, inspired by the right questions.

Block redefines leadership--it is convening, asking the right questions, and listening. What is interesting to note is this relational leadership cannot be measured in the ways that retributional/hierarchical leadership is used to. Action may simply be discussion and connection, not necessarily a change in physical state or status of "the problem". In fact, people may find a possibility they hadn't considered before, rendering the problem irrelevant, while commiting themselves to a new way of being that supports the whole community.

How do we build community? We find out what creates energy. We provide a forum for small group discussion, which values relatedness, is launched by invitation, is focused on possibility, represents ownership by the participants, supports diversity and dissent, expects no bartering for freely given commitments, and these gifts are received with thanks. These meetings revolve around the leader's questions... a powerful question incites action by the mere fact of answering it, like, for example:

• "what is the price you pay for being here today?"
• "what are the gifts you have to offer that you've not yet brought into this world?"
• "what is the story that you keep telling about the problems of this community?"

Before asking the question, however, one must name what distinguishes this from a retributive context, give permission for dissent, and replace advice with curiosity.

Here are a few more great lines/ideas that I don't think really need comment:

• "Advice is a conversation stopper!" "Don't be helpful!"
• "Real transformation comes only through choice." A leader becomes vulnerable when using the invitation to start out these discussions; "even though there is no cost for refusal, there is a price for coming. Everything that has value has a price."
• "The enemy of commitment is lip service, not opposition"
• "Without doubt, our faith has no meaning"... "there is no way to be awake in this world without serious doubts and reservations"
• "Don't ever underestimate the determination of others to hold on to their stories"
• Block doesn't like protest--"every time we act in reaction, even to evil, we are giving power to what we are in reaction to".
• "our life work is to bring our gifts into the world"
• For snacks at meetings, Block asks us to provide locally grown food that is healthy.

second Agile Besançon event

This is a long-delayed post, seeing that we're about to have our next Agile Besançon event this Thursday--but for our last event, Monday, Dec 14, we joined with Bar Camp for its kickoff event in Besançon. The organizers there took photos and documented a bit more, so I won't repeat what they said. I presented a topic on test-driven development with a colleague (Fréd).

Jerry Weinberg's The Secrets of Consulting

This book is a collection of stories and memorable rules... it is unlike anything I've read before, and is hard to absorb in one stretch--I'll probably have to go back to the "listing of laws, rules, and principles" to jar my memory every once in a while. Yet one of the beauties of Weinberg's storytelling ability is that the names quickly bring me back to the story, then back to the lesson.

So, this book says it's about consulting, but he has a very loose definition of the word--consulting is giving advice. The most important thing I got from Weinberg is to never, ever give unsolicited advice. Then, even when asked for advice, it's best not to respond directly, but rather help the person discover it him/herself.

I love his names, like Rudy's Rudebega Rule, the Law of Raspberry Jam, his insistence that as a consultant, he plays more of a role of being illogical, funny, unpredictable than anything else... He seems to have great facilitation skills, great timing "know when pays more than know how". There have been several things I do as a coach that are supported by his rules. I'll list my favorite rules below:

• the First Law of Consulting--there always is a problem
• the Second Law of Consulting--"no matter how it looks at first, it's always a people problem"
• the Third Law of Consulting--if you solve the problem too fast, it's going to be embarrassing
• the Fourth Law of Consulting--"if they didn't hire you, don't fix their problem"
• the Orange Juice test--"we can do it, and here is how much it will cost"
• Brown's Brilliant Bequest--listen to the music and the words
• the Buffalo Bridle--you can make 'em go anywhere, as long as they want to be there
• the Credit Rule--don't worry about who gets the credit
• the Duncan Hines Difference--it tastes better if you add your own egg
• the First Law of Trust--"no one but you cares about the reason you let them down"
• the Fourth Law of Trust--"the trick of earning trust is to avoid all tricks"
• the Five Minute Rule--"clients reveal the answer to their own problem in the first five minutes"
• the Ten Percent Solution Law--"if you happen to achieve more than ten percent improvement, make sure it isn't noticed"

corollary to the Law of Rasberry Jam

Weinberg's Law of Raspberry Jam states that the thinner you spread it, the thinner it gets... it's hard enough to change oneself, harder to influence a team, harder still to influence a class, and yet harder to influence readers of the book. I'd say that a corollary to this is that pop culture, which as whole doesn't respect the source of the ideas, is condemned to keep re-inventing the wheel. It's funny, because one would hope that a really good idea would spread like wildfire, but it can't--it spreads like raspberry jam instead. By the time the masses catch wind of it, it's been reduced to a jingle or technical buzz word.

where the Agile Skills Project needs to go next

There's something new happing in the agile community, despite the fact that some celebrities in our field are waiting for innovation in a post-agilist era, or saying that there's nothing new at the conferences. The transformation is subtle, but very important. In short, it's the creation of local agile implementations that value people over process, community over employers, dedication to the craft and cooperative relationships.

A lot of practitioners are getting experienced enough that they can exploit self-organization to reach out to people in contexts different from their own. Mostly these practitioners are lower profile than the signers of the agile manifesto, but they're not typical early-late majority adopters either, because they're innovating in the wake of the first wave of agilists. They're running their own open-spaces, creating local user groups and conferences, networking internationally, and doing the best they can to learn from one another. Some might call this massive adoption 'crossing the chasm', but in fact they are creating their own flavors of agile at home, based on the learning that comes from participating in the agile community, from previous experience, from corporate and government requirements, and local cultural needs. The agile conferences have been key to building this community, but they're still spread out in time and space in ways that aren't sufficiently accessible for the masses of people that are trying to do agile these days. In addition, the face-to-face conferences have provided sufficient context for people to start working together remotely. The open source world has long leveraged collaborative work at a distance--the agile community, not so much.

So here's what I see...

There are currently over 700 subscribed to the Agile Developer Skills list, which in my mind is the core of the Agile Skills Project. To me it shows that practitioners are coming together in unprecedented numbers to talk about how we might better learn from each other, to define standards by which we will hold each other, and how we'll acknowledge each other's discoveries and hard work. This is low bandwidth collaborative work and can't compare to what we learn at conferences or with consultants, but there's something new afoot.

Next we need these people to take ownership of various places on the wiki, talking about quests, or certifications, or courses; building on the skills inventory, etc. We'll need people who want to build the web application that logs quests and qualifies certifications and course material our classes.

Mostly what we need is people who are willing to tell stories about their development practices, their conclusions on what works and what doesn't, and then peer-reviewed comments on these stories. I hope to see that soon!

deliberate reflection and the Agile Skills Project

Recently I read something from Robert C Martin suggesting that it's only through deliberate efforts that we improve our craft (hence his series of Katas)... today I bumped on the following from Alistair Cockburn.

In The Reflective Practitioner, Schön follows the working habits of architects and engineers. In that book, we see people making predictions as to what their situation will support; then they do some of their work and watch what the situation actually produces, and from that, they alter their understanding. They update their understanding of the problem and the proposed solution according to the changed situation and their new learning. This “reflective conversation with the situation” is just what the Wright brothers did in designing their airfoil.

Craft implies skill in working in a medium, mental or physical. There are many materials in an engineering project and therefore many skills or crafts to become adept at. Some people need people management skills, others need mathematical skills, others need visual design skills, and so on.

Each skill and material brings its own specialized vocabulary. Ceramicists “wedge” clay and study the shrink rate of different glazes compared to clays. Civil engineers work with the tensile strength, fatigue rates, and thermal expansion of their materials. Writers look for flow and development in their texts. Programmers look at cohesion and coupling, testability, clarity of expression, and computational complexity in their algorithms. Testers work with test coverage and probabilities of occurrences. User interface (UI) designers work with cognitive-motor task switching times, recognition times, color scales, and user work patterns. Project managers work with people and are concerned with what builds or tears down trust, community, and initiative.

In each case, craft practice requires practitioners to have a reflective conversation with the material, using the specialized vocabulary. They work with the constraints offered by the materials, the vocabulary, and the project.

It is this deliberate, reflective, intentional improvement that we're trying to support with the Agile Skills Project. Do you have something you'd like to contribute? What can we create together? Sign up for the Agile Developer Skills (http://groups.google.com/group/agile-developer-skills) group, and let's talk!