Inspect and Adapt

Join Construx Senior Fellow Erik Simmons and Mark Griffin as they discuss the ins and outs of Construx's organizational assessments, which go beyond software engineering technical practices to also examine organizational structure, the architecture of the system, the way people communicate, and the degree of interteam trust. Culture can play as important a role as technical practices, so Construx's assessments also assess the effect of an organization's culture on autonomy, mastery, and purpose, which are required for motivating teams. Check out our "More Effective Agile, Part 2" episode to hear Steve McConnell describe how to motivate teams through autonomy, mastery, and purpose.Erik and Mark then discuss the numerous and varied reasons Construx's clients request organizational assessments. Next, they dive into the process of assessments: planning, information gathering, analysis, and reporting. The episode ends with a focus on results: multiple examples of the findings and recommendations this service has provided Construx clients.

Construx Software recently surveyed software professionals to determine the effect that working from home (WFH) during the coronavirus pandemic is having on software development. Our survey explored changes in communication and the impact on individuals, on teamwork, on leaders’ ability to lead, and on specific technical practices. The survey was conducted from April 7 to April 22, 2020, with 624 respondents participating from 63 countries.The context was sobering, with most respondents reporting that they felt more disruption from personal stress related to coronavirus than they did from any aspect of changes related to working from home. The responses to WFH were more surprising. Respondents detailed dozens of creative adaptations that are allowing them to WFH effectively. Some of the adaptations are specific to this time. Others offer lessons that will help companies improve their operations long into the future—with benefits that more than offset the challenges.Future speculation aside, respondents also described a new world now. They described people being kind and supporting, and they described unexpected staff members rising to the occasion. Many described participating in virtual coffee meetings, happy hours, and team chats to stay connected. One respondent wrote that, “The whole world has become a friendlier, more caring place.” Another wrote, “There is a lot more humanity than we thought.”Our survey was focused specifically on software professionals. However, we believe most of the findings are broadly applicable to all companies with staff and leaders who WFH.Download the full report today.

Fifth in our series in which Steve McConnell describes the 28 key principles in his new book, More Effective Agile (Construx Press, 2019). The principles discussed this time:"Manage Technical Debt." A consistent focus on quality is part of an effective Agile implementation. Managing technical debt supports higher team morale, faster progress, and higher quality products. (See page 131 in the book.)"Support Large Agile Projects Through Architecture." Good architecture can support portioned work on a project and minimize large-project overhead. Great architecture can make a large project feel like a smaller one. (See page 144.)"Automate Repetitive Activities." No one likes repetitive activities, and many of the activities that can be automated in software development provide more benefit when they’re automated than when they aren’t. (See page 208.) 

Fourth in our series in which Steve McConnell describes the 28 key principles in his new book, More Effective Agile (Construx Press, 2019). The principles discussed this time: "Keep Projects Small." Small projects are easier and more often successful. Not all work can be structured into small projects, but the work that can be structured that way should be. (See page 120 in the book.) "Keep Sprints Short." Short sprints support a frequent Inspect and Adapt feedback loop. They expose problems quickly, making it easy to nip small problems in the bud before they become large problems. (See page 123.) "Deliver in Vertical Slices." Feedback is important in Agile. Teams get better feedback on their technology and design choices—both from customers and the business—when they deliver in vertical slices rather than horizontal slices. (See page 128.) 

Is your team fairly new to Scrum? Construx Senior Fellow Earl Beede and Mark Griffin discuss specific strategies and concepts that will help your first Scrum efforts be successful.Learn about the shift in mind-set from individual contributors to a true team dynamic in which throughput is far more important than being busy in parallel activities. You don’t need to be good at everything, but you need to be able to help out on anything, rather than focus only on your specialty. Helping others finish work in process—countering the common reality of having lots of things started but nothing finished—helps lowers various kinds of risk related to isolated/stuck team members, team members leaving, and new team members being onboarded. And team-driven design and decision-making is better.Earl and Mark discuss the J-curve that describes a team’s performance and productivity in a situation of change, such as when it’s beginning to use Scrum. Business pressures aren’t put on pause, so what’s a good approach? First, you don’t need to go fully Scrum immediately. Also, you need 3­–5 cycles to learn a new process, so the sprint retrospective is crucial in this process.The guys also discuss the persistent role of design in Agile, which can be a surprise for new Scrum teams. High-level decisions have to be made before a team kicks off, and low-level design continues during sprint planning. And the episode ends with a discussion of staffing Scrum roles. The Product Owner works the business, the Development Team works the product, and the Scrum Master works the process. Which of these are crucial if you can’t staff all of them? 

Third in our series in which Steve McConnell describes the 28 key principles in his new book, More Effective Agile (Construx Press, 2019). The principles discussed this time:"Tighten Feedback Loops." Don’t take any longer to learn lessons than you need to; keep the feedback loops as tight as possible. This supports more rapid progress from the "Inspect and Adapt" key principle and faster improvements in effectiveness from the "Develop a Growth Mindset" key principle. (See page 89 in the book.)"Fix the System, Not the Individual." Most software professionals want to do good work. If they aren’t doing good work—and especially if it seems like they’re trying not to do good work—understand what dynamics are contributing to that. Look for the system problem that’s frustrating the person. (See page 98 in the book.) "Increase Team Capacity by Building Individual Capacity." Teams exhibit attributes that are a combination of the team members’ individual attributes and of their interactions. Strengthen your teams by strengthening the individuals on the teams. (See page 103 in the book.)Check out the reviews for Steve's book here! More Effective Agile: A Roadmap for Software Leaders 

Second in our series in which Steve McConnell describes the 28 key principles in his new book, More Effective Agile (Construx Press, 2019). The principles discussed this time: "Motivate Teams Through Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose." Agile practices inherently support the factors that contribute to motivation. Teams are intended to work with Autonomy and to become better over time (Mastery). In order to do so, they need to understand their Purpose. The concepts of “healthy Agile team” and “motivated Agile team” are strongly intertwined. "Develop a Growth Mindset." Whether you look at it from the point of view of the “Mastery” part of Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose or from the point of view of Inspect and Adapt, effective Agile teams maintain a steady focus on getting better. "Develop Business Focus." Developers frequently need to fill in gaps in requirements and in direction from their Product Owner. Understanding their business helps them fill those gaps in ways that are beneficial to the business.Check out the book's reviews here! More Effective Agile: A Roadmap for Software Leaders 

Teams succeeding with Agile approaches on smaller projects often encounter difficulties when attempting to scale those methods. In this episode, Construx Senior Fellow Earl Beede and Mark Griffin discuss specific strategies for successfully scaling Agile. First, they cover the importance of batch sizing. Overly large batches easily lead to waste, and many scaling issues can be solved by manipulating batch size. The next strategy—backfilling—addresses two challenges: The tendency for teams to focus on invention rather than on problems that need solving, and lack of clarity regarding product or feature direction. Backfilling also serves as a prompt for identifying the decision makers for the product. The final strategy relates to collaboration: How is collaboration ensured in scaled Agile environments (and even in single Scrum team instances)? The trick is to encourage collaboration on actual work—doing work together on some specific deliverable, not just sharing information. Otherwise, collaboration ends when work kicks in and information sharing is displaced.

We’re happy to continue the conversation between Steve McConnell and Jeff Atwood. Jeff is a software developer, author, and entrepreneur known for blogging at Coding Horror, co-founding the computer-programming question-and-answer website Stack Overflow, and, currently, developing Discourse, a powerful open-source discussion platform. Over the holidays we recorded Jeff and Steve discussing Steve’s new book, More Effective Agile, which Jeff had just read. Their discussion touches on numerous aspects of effective—and wise!—software development.

We’re happy to the share the first of two episodes featuring Jeff Atwood, a software developer, author, and entrepreneur known for many things: blogging at Coding Horror, co-founding the computer-programming question-and-answer website Stack Overflow, and, currently, developing Discourse, a powerful open-source discussion platform. Over the holidays we recorded Jeff and Steve McConnell discussing Steve’s new book, More Effective Agile, which Jeff had just read. Enjoy a conversation that touches on numerous aspects of effective—and wise!—software development. And check back for the second part of the conversation in a couple of weeks.