About 15 years ago, I was lucky enough to be the architect on a major project for a big financial services customer; re-imagining their Human Capital Management platform. It was my dream job - a competent team; I understood the brief; awesome sponsor; realistic deadlines; challenging requirements; and lots of learning.
We followed a traditional waterfall delivery model.
- You tell us the specification.
- We respond in writing with what we'll do.
- We develop.
- You test based on your specification.
- You sign off if the software does what you specified.
I thought the team did an amazing job. Bizarrely, we were ready a month ahead of schedule. Which afforded me time to chat to the customer about quality / their experience / their expectations.
Cough cough
Turned out the customer was (a) confused about what they were getting; (b) frustrated at being confused and (c) not very happy in some cases with how they got what they thought they wanted. (I've written previously about this... here...)
But, this afforded me 3 weeks to investigate better ways of working. And I stumbled upon... agile...
Mind = blown.
After 10+ years of waterfall, I was literally blown away that there was another way of working. But... for those of you that have always worked in an agile / scrum manner... without being rude... you need to have seen the bad side, to appreciate the good.
Exhibit 1:
Take a minute to read this.
Now read it again. But ask yourself - in your environment - are you on the left, or the right?
Do you find yourself saying "but we're at x stage. This is not the agreed process?"
Or "but the signed off documentation says x..."
Or "but the contract says x..."
Or "the plan says x..."
I was. <<blush>>,
Here's the reality (for me, at least...). Our customers are great at what they do. But they don't live in our world. Which they shouldn't need to... So, if they mess up / don't understand / are ambiguous / change their minds... it's not because they're negligent; it's because they don't live in a software delivery world.
Which is not to say customers have zero obligations. But it is to say this is a two-way street.
And... for this post... I'll leave you with what I believe to be some of the most articulate words about servant leadership, that you could find. Original link here.
We follow these principles:
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer
through early and continuous delivery
of valuable software.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in
development. Agile processes harness change for
the customer's competitive advantage.
Deliver working software frequently, from a
couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a
preference to the shorter timescale.
Business people and developers must work
together daily throughout the project.
Build projects around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they need,
and trust them to get the job done.
The most efficient and effective method of
conveying information to and within a development
team is face-to-face conversation.
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Agile processes promote sustainable development.
The sponsors, developers, and users should be able
to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
Continuous attention to technical excellence
and good design enhances agility.
Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount
of work not done--is essential.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs
emerge from self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how
to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts
its behavior accordingly.
If you can follow the above principles (and this is not for all customers / for all use-cases / for all time) - in my experience, you serve your customer. And, which is more, you may just be successful.