Comments for c2refleXions - Chris Chan's Blog

Comment on Innovation: 4 Part Recipe for Sustaining an Innovation Pipeline by Chris Chan

Chris Chan — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 09:41:17 +0000

Hi Philip, Thanks. I am glad you liked the idea!

Chris

Comment on Innovation: 4 Part Recipe for Sustaining an Innovation Pipeline by Philip Wickenden

Philip Wickenden — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 23:43:54 +0000

Interesting blog. I like the ideas. Phil

Comment on LAST Conference 2012 Notes by The Difficult Second Album « Projects' Little Helper

The Difficult Second Album « Projects' Little Helper — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 05:14:10 +0000

[...] you want an idea of what last year’s event was like, here’s Chris Chan’s notes, and if you want to go more in-depth, go and have a look at LAST 2012′s Lanyrd page. We [...]

Comment on Cradle Mountain Reflections by Leroy Madison

Leroy Madison — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 23:11:16 +0000

Such a rare day!! Great photo

Comment on LAST Conference 2012 Notes by Ed Wong

Ed Wong — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 06:04:28 +0000

Thanks for the summary, Chris. I’m glad that we were able to make it an engaging experience for you. Coverage of the follow-up for the event is being aggregated at our Lanyrd page. At the moment, there a several write-ups, a good number of slide decks, photos, and Lynne’s sketch notes. Craig’s working on crunching the videos that were recorded, and they will be linked up there, as soon as he’s done.

Comment on I am an Agile Plumber by Chris Chan

Chris Chan — Mon, 28 May 2012 11:59:22 +0000

Bob, totally agree.

The “you-only-get-one-chance-to-say-what-you-want” is a viscous cycle.

Comment on I am an Agile Plumber by Bob Allen (@CuriousAgilist)

Bob Allen (@CuriousAgilist) — Sun, 27 May 2012 21:14:29 +0000

Hi Chris,
Thank you for providing us with a wonderful (and conversationally provocative) analogy. Let me return the favor.

Although it may be true that “you can do more with less” (and we often hear admonitions for teams to do so), I would offer that this isn’t the point; it is actually to simply “do less”. This is is one of the hardest lessons for teams and organizations to learn, and will always provoke at least some quizzical interest and hopefully further conversation.

Aslak Hellesoy gives a great presentation (http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/agile-scrum/cucumber-from-the-horses-mouth/zx-1334) where he not only mentions the oft quoted Standish Group study on percentage of features that are delivered but never used at all, he also shows a slide detailing _when_ mistakes are made (about 56% in requirements phase and another 25% in design). These both result directly from the “you-only-get-one-chance-to-say-what-you-want” syndrome; that is, the business throws in everything they think the _might_ need because they’ve been burned before on the cost of “change orders” used with outmoded development models.

There are two lesson here:
1. It’s not only the “development” (the coding and testing portions) that are done in small bits/short iterations, it’s also the requirements, the design, and the deployment. You might hear some FUD here: “Oh horror. Incremental design?! How can that possibly work? No self-respecting architect is going to go for that!”. But on the flip side, how much better will the result be if the limited budget available is focused on stuff the customer is actually willing to pay for, i.e. that they value. (You might also hear “OMG. You want an actual customer to see _that_? But .. but .. it’s .. it’s not shiny.”)

How do you know, absolutely, if the customer is willing to pay for it until you put it in their hands. Folding the requirements/analysis/design activities into one end, and deployment activities into the other end of short iterations is by far the most difficult part of delivering value, but also the most rewarding part.

2. Only if you do this (get working software into the hands of the customer early and often) will a second benefit accrue; they get to see what they _told_ they wanted in time to change their minds and apply what they’ve learned on the way there. How refreshing is that?! Who knows? They could actually end up trusting you after that sort of experience.

Anyway, while it may seem crazy, provocative, etc. doing less (the right stuff) actually _gets_ you more.

Thanks again for a great analogy,
Bob

Comment on I want to run an agile project by Julian Holmes

Julian Holmes — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:27:30 +0000

Thanks. It was good fun to make, and we are due to release Part 2 very soon…

Comment on Quotes from Taiichi Ohno by Will

Will — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 09:16:42 +0000

Very wise words! The people who truly understands are those who have experienced it for themselves.

Comment on Email is a time waster by Mark H

Mark H — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:56:13 +0000

Chris, I couldn’t agree more! Even in this age, too many of us still rely on email (which to my mind is simply a quicker form of mail).
IM is an improvement- but even that isn’t as efficient as face-to-face (as you pointed out in regard to body language, expressions, etc.)