The hard part is convincing people that what they’re reaching for is a hot stove.
Having developers work for 6 months and then do a single release is appealing because development proceeds in the straightest line over the shortest distance. When I push for small releases and iteration, the main pushback is that the incremental releases add work. The tradeoff appears to be one release after 6 months, or 7 monthly releases.
Seven months is more than six months, so iteration is more work!
The problem is that the single release after 6 months of work is “hot stove”. It’s a plan that needs the requirements to be perfect at the start. Nothing new can be learned during the project. Customers and the market have to remain exactly the same. It’s a plan that will leave you burned.
It isn’t six months versus seven months. It is 6 months, plus 3-6 months of rework versus seven months.
Explaining the risks is ineffective. People will agree that if the plan is wrong, that if we learn new things, or if the market changes then of course a 6 month plan will end up delivering the wrong thing. Of course you will then need another 3 months to correct. That’s obvious.
After agreeing about the risk, they will then declare that those risks don’t apply to THIS project. This project isn’t at all like those “hot stoves”. This project plan is correct and everything has been considered.
Describing the danger doesn’t work if the problem doesn’t resonate with the listener. Instead of urging people not to touch hot stoves, work on helping them identify the hot stove.
- Instead of talking about the risks of a single release, talk about the value of iteration.
- Don’t talk about the likelihood that the new workflows aren’t perfect, talk about the value of early customer feedback.
- Don’t talk about the risk that the 3rd party system doesn’t really work like their spec, talk about the value of early integration.
- Don’t talk about holding back valuable features for a gigantic release, talk about delivering value to customers.
Once people see the risk and the tradeoffs, you won’t have to convince them not to burn themselves. After all, everyone understands that you shouldn’t touch hot stoves.
