AGILE IN ACTION

The other day at the lab I was going about my 'morning constitutional' in the little boys room when I noticed the end of the toilet paper had been folded into a point. You know, just like in hotel room bathrooms. I realized I had a big smile on my face. This simple act by the office cleaner apparently made me happy. I think the fact it surprised me - I so wasn't expecting it - had an amplifying affect on my delight. If you haven't visited our lab, the last thing you'd expect to see was pointy toilet paper.

Power is shifting in the marketplace from the seller to the buyer. The rules of business are changing. Increasingly, customers know everything about the companies they buy from. Customers are taking charge and the new business bottom line is customer delight. It's no longer about pushing features at customers, it's about achieving the experiences customers desire. It's no longer about concept to cash, it's about how long it takes to go from concept to customer delight. It's no longer about output, it's about outcomes. Delighting customers is everyone's responsibility and whether you realize it or not, no matter what you do, you're working in customer services.

There is no business without customers. The customer is the most important part of the value stream but Ackoff reminds us that an enduring commercial future requires the social system of stakeholders in a company to be taken into account. Deming said the aim for any company is for everybody to gain - shareholders, employees, suppliers, customers, community, the environment - over the long term. Shareholders expect maximum return on their investment. Successful business requires customers, forward thinking and innovation, sound economics and ever improving operational effectiveness. Customers want their problems solved, they want help to achieve whatever it is they’re doing. Employees wish for meaningful work with opportunities to learn and be creative in an enjoyable environment that provides job security. Suppliers desire a trusting and equitable partnership. Society wants to see ethical behavior, responsibility, and accountability.

If you're working towards a key release, the pressure mounts for everyone involved as it approaches. For the technical team responsible for delivery the rising pressure in this situation is nearly always negative if left unchecked. As time runs out the drumbeat gets faster and faster as the team is whipped up to ramming speed, a bit like the galley slaves in Ben Hur.

We learned in the very early days to treat everything as a PR opportunity with the customer. So the showcase is a big thing for us. We run showcases every Tuesday. We prepare the demo environment with real-world data, put together an entertaining narrative that introduces and connects the new features for users, and rehearse it all a few times to ensure the showcase is a valuable and meaningful experience for the customer.

Agile projects demand real customer involvement. To be an effective on-site customer or Product Owner, you must either be a real customer, or be in a position to accurately represent the real customer. You must acknowledge the elevated status you hold and accept the responsibilities that accompany it (accepted responsibility). You must be a stakeholder and a fully integrated member of the team. You must be accessible and you must participate in the project proactively and continuously. You must recognize that through your actions - writing user stories and acceptance tests, prioritizing user stories by business value, deciding which user stories are developed next, providing rapid feedback, etc - you are effectively steering the project and are ultimately responsible for the business value that is delivered. As the driving force behind the project your presence must be visible, vocal and objective.