Be prepared: Agile Transformations will make Software Development appear to get worse
Agile transformations are begun in order to improve value and software delivery.
Ironically they will make the value delivery appear to deteriorate.
Nobody likes to say this before they start, leaving business stakeholders and teams worried and demotivated.
Value delivery will appear worse for three reasons
- Common to all transformations, which should be temporary until the new process is embedded
- Due to the first step of Continuous Improvement, which should be temporary if you follow the PDCA cycle
- Because legacy metrics havent been updated to align with Agile Goals and Values, this will be permanent unless you update the metrics.
The J Curve
The J curve is a common model. When applied to process improvement or organisational change it shows that there will be a temporary dip in performance whilst the new process is learnt by the organisation. This will be due to the energy & time required to learn the new process, and teething issues when implementing.
Making Problems Visible
While the above picture was created for Kanban it applies for any Agile process including SCRUM, Lean, Kanban or XP.
As the first step to achieving better performance it will expose hidden issues which are root causes for wastes and costs in the previous system.
It is a common misconception that Agile/Lean cause the issues, however they actually strip away whatever is hiding them.
The good news is that once exposed they can be tackled, but this requires bravery, commitment and investment of time and effort, which normally requires a shift in culture as well as process.
Measuring the right thing
“What gets measured gets managed” — Peter Drucker
Agile and Lean increase productivity and effectiveness by targetting different costs than other traditional approaches, namely Cost of Delay and Cost of Failure. This requires a trade off where the Cost of Production is increased, as Cost of Delay, Failure and Production form a trilemma.
Since traditional accounting approaches typically only consider the Cost of Production, and it’s associated Lead Indicators, then Agile and Lean improvements can actually appear worse.
The good news is that if you update your metrics to align with how Agile works, by measuring Process Efficiency and Lead Time for example, then you will see the improvements once the Agile and Lean improvements kick in.
