Understanding Agile – The BvB Way

Though comparatively being one of the youngest industries, IT has seen far too many changes and transformations in short span of its journey. It takes ages for an industry to mature and stabilize. For most of them it’s like starting with a horse cart on dirt tracks and with right amount of efforts + experience the carriage transforms into an automobile and the dirt track into a paved road. If not completely but it reduces the bumps on the way to say the least; though this may take decades to happen. 

But for IT, this transformation was unconventional as compared to any post-industrial revolution domain. It was more like river rafting where initial calm waters are immediately followed by never ending rapids. The pace is frantic, and path is full of bends. The IT company boat needs to be maneuvered skillfully at every rapid and bend; which demand adept and skillful people on-board. People who understand the currents, envision bends, adapt quickly and master it over the period; just to imbibe the learning's, implement them, unlearn the old and get ready for new skills. 

Out of many disciplines that holds the boat steady and help it reach the destination; software development / delivery frameworks is pivotal. It forms the core structure of the boat and hence need to be given due attention, keep tidy, replace parts which are eroded with new ones to lessen the load and improved speed. But being an all-encompassing framework, we see the changes to it, less frequent as compared to gears (technologies) used by people on-board. But they do happen and off-late the pace of change have increased dramatically.

With advent of mobile technology and introduction of smart phones, the competition to deliver more and fast has become intense. Which has pushed software solution development and delivery to adopt methodologies and processes that can support demand of swift changes for success of client’s business. Those who don’t get accustomed; can’t survive. Nokia and Kodak are some of the leading examples of it. Whereas those who seize the moment; rule the world, for example – Amazon and Netflix. To put it in perspective – “…..After moving to its own cloud, Amazon engineers deploy code every 11.7 seconds, on average—reducing both the number and duration of outages at the same time. Netflix engineers deploy code thousands of times per day……” (source - https://blog.newrelic.com/2016/02/04/data-culture-survey-results-faster-deployment/)  

So, what make industry leaders what they are? It’s the adaptation from traditional waterfall software development lifecycle to Agile principles supported by DevOps tools. This change is the ‘Assembly line moment’ of IT industry. In 1913, Henry Ford installed first moving assembly line for mass production of an entire automobile. This change reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to two hours and 30 minutes. Agile is bringing such revolution to software development and delivery.  

But aren’t we still doing the same work i.e. Requirement analysis, Design, Development, Testing etc. Then how Agile is more efficient than Waterfall. Let me try to explain that with another sports analogy. Waterfall vs Agile is analogous to a Relay race vs Rugby – handing over the baton vs passing the ball. Basically, its Baton Vs Ball – BvB. Although both are team events; they differ in they way teams try to achieve goals. In terms of efficiency to achieve end-goal, Rugby team win hands down. So what are the differentiating factors which makes Rugby team more efficient than Relay –

• The Running TEAM (TRT) – In Relay only one team member runs at a time. Whereas in Rugby whole team start running together. A waterfall team member completes a lap and ones he finishes that next person starts. There is an overlap but that’s only for some distance for handover. But Agile has ‘The Running Team’ (TRT). Here whole team runs together towards the goal. Hence when the ball drops, whole team has covered same amount of distance unlike waterfall where others are clueless about challenges faced by the other team member.

• Gradually Rapid Delivery – The Running Team work in unison – they travel a distance together. So when they restart, the team has actually achieved something that is quantifiable, testable and has a value. And since they’ve already delivered something with value, building upon it becomes easy and next iterations delivers a higher value delivery.

• Sustainable Pace – Agile team runs together, hence everyone contributes equally at the same time. So, there are no burn outs at the end of a ‘Phase’ unlike waterfall where person who is responsible for delivery during a ‘Phase’ gets exhausted at the end of it.  Hence ‘joint forces’ of all TRT members make gradually rapid progress towards the finish line with sustainable pace.  

• Weak Links Covered – In Relays the slowest member decides the speed of team. Team members can’t do much until the slowest team member completes the lap and starts the handover. That’s why squeezed testing timelines are very common in waterfall model. In contrast, TRT has protection for such team members as the team is cross functional, impediments are discussed every day in stand-ups, team is aware about them and a designated person (Scrum Master) is there to remove the impediments and protect from external influences. 

• Flexibility – If TRT members have flaw in their strategy they will drop ball sooner than later. But failure gives them opportunity to retrospect and correct the mistakes. This results in better delivery and improved performance in successive sprints. A team learns fast, delivers better. Unlike Relay team where faults become visible mostly when finish lines comes to horizon and then the last runner has to sprint fast to recover the lost time.

Agile teams, self-organizing, Flexible and adaptable, are better suited to deliver with rapid pace in today's ever changing and demanding business climate.