Moving out of the Process Twilight Zone
There are many prerequisites to an organization's success. Let's focus on one:
The way of managing work and engaging people must be coherent and appropriate for achieving the mission.
This sounds so obvious that it's often missed, with consequences to the business.
Over the decades, the software industry has undergone both *evolution* and *revolution* in its approach to work and people. For a while, it seemed like we'd "arrived": we'd discovered and firmed up Agile, a coherent way in which healthy teams develop and deliver customer-meaningful products sooner.
A few organizations have adopted Agile wholeheartedly, many others have given it a try, and most of the rest have their own thing + bits of Agile. We're now two years into a global malaise with the term and investing in being more Agile is rare.
Where does this find the industry? The way many organizations develop software products is stuck in a twilight zone that doesn't fulfill the prerequisite:
- The work is managed using a mix of models, cycles, and practices that optimize for different effects.
- There's an inconsistent mix of empowerment and top-down—of solo accountability and collaboration.
- The product doesn't solve customer problems or contribute to business outcomes well enough.
There's a lot to say about why and how the industry got here, but I'm more interested in helping organizations look forward and improve their lot.
Leaders must start by being aware of the problem. Many don't notice it: they're still in business, they have smart managers, and teams keep delivering features, so things must be okay, right? They need to trace business performance problems to their product development approach.
Making the system better should be a priority: if it's not producing the right results, delaying improvements hurts the business. That requires active leader participation and an investment of time and money. It's not a lot of money, and it's quickly made back (organizations usually don't realize that because of how they count it).
Leaders must also be deliberate and specific about the changes to make, basing them on a model (Agile or otherwise) that's likely to produce better results in their context. A model gives coherence to work, makes it possible to lead consistently, and reduces dependence on specific managers who may come and go. Examples of models include Lean, the Theory of Constraints, Waterfall, and self-managing teams. A model can also be home-grown.
Your organization is already trying to keep its offerings relevant in a fast-moving space. It should extend the same attention to its approach to getting work done.
