A Practical Approach to Agility and Product Management

Month: March 2018

Methods of Communication – How “Slack” is Filling a New Gap

Slack, the instant messaging application, is seemingly ubiquitous among software developers and teams of various sizes and make ups nowadays. In recent years, its use has spread like wildfire and if there’s still a team that’s not using it and hanging on to things like Google Hangouts or Skype for Business, sooner or later someone on the team will suggest trying out Slack and the rest will be history. The fact that Slack is easy and free to set up makes the barrier of entry low and once a team starts, there’s usually no looking back. I’ve seen Slack take very deep roots in a corporate environment where the company tried to insist on using the “corporate standard” application, but to no avail: the developers basically ignored all such requests and insisted on using Slack.

But this post is not about how great Slack is (although it is arguably pretty cool and a great example for habit-forming application). It is about something else: After using the application for a few months with a globally distributed team, I noticed how it created a new mode of communication. Let me explain: Methods of human communication live on a scale of immediacy. On the far ends of this spectrum are the instantaneous, real-time methods such as voice and video (zero delay) and the method with the longest delay known as postal mail with days to weeks of delay (nothing is really any slower, assuming messages in bottles are out of scope).

The methods in the middle are a little more recent and interesting: There we have instant messages, SMS, and similar methods. While not exactly immediate or real-time, the expectation is usually that responses are received within minutes or maybe an hour at the longest. What about email? In my experience senders usually expect to hear back anywhere within 2 hrs to 1 business day.

So where does Slack fit in? It’s basically an instant messaging application, right? On the surface, yes. That’s where it all starts and that is certainly Slack’s core. One thing that makes Slack really sticky is the fact that you can transition to a real-time method. Involved in an intense back and forth with a colleague and the topic of conversation gets too complex or typing is getting too tedious? Well, you can now transition into Slack voice calls, video, or screen sharing (assuming you’re using the paid version).

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Reducing Variability and the Airport Omelette

Like many times before, I was sitting in my favorite airport restaurant before my first flight and enjoyed my typical egg white omelette. Then I questioned myself: why don’t I eat breakfast at home instead and leave later for the airport? That didn’t feel right (apart from the fact that my home cooked omelettes don’t taste as good), until I realized there was a deeper reason for it: Eating at home meant leaving later, which would increase the likelihood of hitting traffic on the road and longer lines in the airport. Leaving later would also reduce the safety buffer I can rely on if something unforeseen happens. If worst came to worst, I could skip my airport breakfast and chow down a bar instead and still make my flight. If I ate at ours have that safety buffer.

Taking a step back, making a flight as well as completing work projects on time is about increasing predictability. One way to do that is to reduce schedule and other risks by eliminating variability early on in the process. So if a project consists of multiple sequential steps, it makes sense to eliminate variables as early as possible and take on those tasks that have the highest possible variability first (assuming the tasks can be resequenced accordingly).

This is very much in line with Agile’s recommendation to take on those stories and features with the highest level of technical risk first. It’s all about reducing risk and increasing predictability.

Wait, you might say, doesn’t SAFe propose to preserve options and defer decisions till the last responsible moment? Yes. If these options bear the same amount of risk and variability, doing so may not necessarily increase project duration and risk, but it certainly doesn’t remove variability early on. The goal here is to stay responsive to changes in market and business demands and not place technical bets until necessary.

In practice, one will need to find the right sweet spot between reducing variability and preserving options as those two approaching are some what opposites sides of the same continuum. SAFe practitioners are, at the end of the day, also incentivized to be predictable and meet PI commitments, if possible.

Now that I understand why my usual airport omelette actually helps me make my early flight, I will certainly keep my eyes open for other opportunities in my life to reduce variability and increase predictability where it matters.