We know that deadlines drive behavior. Thatâs why in scrum, and other agile methodologies, we timebox the development with those deadlines. They tell us: Focus on the important stuff, and make sure itâs done properly.
Since they are good in essence, letâs see how we muck them up.
Hereâs the process. We prepare for the sprint, splitting stories, asking for details and estimating. After all this effort, we decide itâs safe for the story to enter the sprint, because weâll be able to deliver it.
| This series is about practices we do, without understanding why we do them, and therefore may not get the value we want from them. If you too don’t benefit from them, you might be doing it wrong. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Iteration planning, Pt. 1 | Iteration planning, Pt. 2 | Definition of done | Demo |
| Done-Done | Daily stand-ups | Retrospectives | Continuous integration |
Surprise!
Things happen.
We discover new stuff, hidden details. We also find out unplanned tasks creeped in. The deadline is looming. We wonât be able to make itâĶ
Imagine the horrid humiliation of not meeting our own estimates. How can we face our peers with the late result of doing something for the first time, and missing the mark completely? What will they think of us?
So we cut corners. We skip unit tests. We skip the code review. We decide the story is small and doesnât require proper design review. We push the code to trunk, and hope that testing can occur before we the clock runs out. And maybe weâre lucky, and we can count the story as âdoneâ.
Cool, we got our story points. Party time!
Ironically, itâs what agile always wanted: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. We throw the process out the window to please people (and ourselves).
Fear factor
Yeah, itâs the old story of deadlines rolling over us, again and again. But why do we let them? (assuming these are not actual business deadlines, just end of sprint, or even releases?)
- Deadlines are simple. They are so much easier to explain and understand than doneness.
- Deadlines are objective. Doneness is subjective.
- Deadlines are always visible. Doneness is only visible when checked.
- Deadlines donât change their meaning. Doneness changes all the time.
We are more comfortable with deadlines because weâve lived with them all our lives. We make the best we could to abide by them, usually by dropping quality to meet them. In most cases we got a pat on the back by meeting them, and a slap in the face when we didnât. Regardless of quality.
Weâre comfortable to prioritize deadlines, even self-dictated, imaginary, ineffective deadlines over everything else. Are we supposed to put quality, or doneness, whatever you want to call it, over them?
And now weâve got that pesky scrum master chastising us about those âdoneness thingsâ. Still, when we look over the table, we see a satisfied product manager. He tells us, âthatâs ok, you can do the code review laterâ.
The defense rests.
Changing the behavior
We like to talk about mindset, how we can shift it in a better direction. The bad news are, I cannot change yours, by downloading mindset 2.0 into your brain. God knows I tried.
The way we change is by how we perceive other peopleâs behaviors. If management and teammates change their behavior, thereâs a good chance I will too. If we start rewarding doneness, and start saying out loud:
- Yes, itâs good that you havenât pushed this into the trunk and risked everybody elseâs code
- Yes, itâs good that you waited for that code review because we found 2 bugs that could have gone into production
- Yes, itâs good that youâve written those tests, because now we move to other features depending on yours without fear of rework
- No, itâs not good that youâve skipped the design review because weâre finding now, that we either need to stop other teamâs work, or go back to the drawing board
- No, itâs not good that you skipped the automatic tests, because now we need to do a manual regression suite every time.
- No, itâs not ready for production unless everyone agrees it is based on what we agreed, and it clearly isnât.
Until we start behaving like doneness matters, the mindset will not change, and worse â behavior wonât change. Deadlines will continue trumping quality. Only if we let them.
| Reference: | You’re Doing It Wrong: Deadlines from our JCG partner Gil Zilberfeld at the Geek Out of Water blog. |
