Co-ordinates changed for Agile Reflexions

Just wanted to announce that my blog co-ordinates has changed…

I would continue to post my thoughts @ http://elegantvie.in/reflexions/

Please check me back at the above link to see my latest blogs. Thank you.

Is randomness real?

The simple and quick answer is NO. There is no thing as “random”. It is all destiny and it is very much pre-defined. Let me explain this.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines "random" as "Having no definite aim or purpose; not sent or guided in a particular direction; made, done, occurring, etc., without method or conscious choice; haphazard." This concept of randomness suggests a non-order or non-coherence in a sequence of symbols or steps, such that there is no intelligible pattern or combination.

This very definition above explains that there is no such thing as “something happening at random”. End result of every act is pre-defined. Let us take a simple example of a die being thrown. A die can take any of the 6 possibilities. However, the possibility of outcome is very much defined at the beginning itself. For simplicity sake, we can consider it to be when the person throwing the die picks it to throw. The force with which he throws, the way he holds it, actually defines the final outcome. If we can simulate the exact scenario, we must be able to replicate the results again and again, which proves the point that nothing is random. Only reason, why we feel the outcome is random is, we human beings do not have the capability to foresee it. It is as simple as that.

Let me take another example of a person winning a lottery. Here again, the number being picked up is pre-defined. One aspect we need to realize here, is  that the possibility of picking a specific number is one among the total present. However, the way by which the lot is shuffled, the way it is being picked up etc clearly defines the final outcome. Here as well, we can predict its final outcome.

Why are we not able to predict the final outcome?

It is just our incapability. We human beings are not tuned to be able predict the final outcome. Or may be it is too much effort for us to predict.

And, this is obvious reason; a computer cannot really generate a true random number (in case you are not aware). We always try to fool the system by changing the seed value.

Having explained the topic, the most important question that I have would be, "What is our destiny or what is the purpose of our life?". I tend to believe, each living being is born with a purpose. Many of us realize it, many think they have realized it, many think they will realize it some day and the remaining are not aware of such a thing and leaves it to destiny (Did I get into an infinite loop here...). 

Agile Thinking

Let me jot down my views on being empathetic Vs being analytical.

Empathy is the ability to see the world as another person, to share and understand another person’s feelings, needs, concerns and/or emotional state. Or in simple words what they say as “to be in other persons shoes”

Analytical (or critical thinking as it may be referred to sometimes) means paying attention to detail and involves evaluating, comparing, contrasting, critiquing, judging, explaining why, and examining.

What matters the most? Being empathetic or being analytical. This is an interesting point to ponder on. Here is my view on this.

We are living in a world where we deal more with people who actually “think” for a living (otherwise known as “knowledge workers”). When we deal with people, we are always dealing with emotions. Being analytic is a total contrast to being emotional. Both never go hand in hand. I happened to see this article some time back which gives an insight on why it is so.

So now, the question is, which one should we go with? Agreed, we cannot be both empathetic and analytic at the same time. But, there is always a better way of approaching this.

I suggest going ahead with analytical part first. This helps us to look at various possibilities and various outcomes, which gives a good view on what we need to do. Stop, do not jump into conclusions. We do not have the answers, yet. Next action is to approach this from an emotional point of view and evaluate various possibilities. The surprising fact is that we sometimes realize what we thought was the best solution may now look, not very attractive after attaching a little emotion to it. We may now prefer a different alternative available. This is exactly the biggest advantage of using the two pronged approach.

Taking an example at work, when a colleague indicates something will be done in a particular way, in many cases, my analytical side knows this may not happen. In such situation, I always prefer not to conclude on what my analytical brain tells me. The reason is, I also evaluate the emotional part of it. Sometimes, it is better to make the other person comfortable, for whatever reasons be it. In case, it works out the way the other person mentioned, it is great.

The obvious advantages of two pronged approach are:

• We are aware of various outcomes and can be prepared for any of these outcomes
• We give other persons concerns, a thought (by being empathetic)
• We make the other person feel more comfortable
• When the end result is different from what we aspired for, at least we are fine since we were aware of this one, and not totally surprised

So the net outcome, though may not really be an encouraging one, we were prepared and knew this was on its way, anyhow. This is why, I like to call it as agile thinking :)

Let me know your views...

Disclaimer: Do not use it always as one might get into depression, when later we realize that we are always on the receiving side...

Living Vs Surviving

In animal world, if you want to survive 'today', it is just enough to outrun the slowest in the herd. This will keep any animal alive for that day. For survival, the challenge is to identify slowest and run faster than this "lesser fortunate one" to ensure you are alive. The interesting fact is, though this will help you live for another day(s), but not longer. There will be a day, when no one else is left and it will be your turn.

To ascertain you never get caught by any wild beast, is to secure yourself by running faster than your predator. When you run faster, you become invincible (may be that is a little exaggeration). At least it will guarantee that your predator is never able to catch and kill you.

The same logic is applicable for us, at work, at home, everywhere. This is one of universal truths. To live the life that we aspire, we need to be the best. It always pays back. Each day, we need to focus on what is that will make us better. If we do not do this, there will be a day, when the beast will outrun and kill you.

The choice is ours, whether we want to live or survive. I want to conclude with a quote from William Ralph Inge, that says,  “There are no rewards or punishments - only consequences”. Very true :).

PTM triplet for continuous improvement

As per Wikipedia, Continuous improvement process (abbreviated as CIP or CI), 
"is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. These efforts can seek "incremental" improvement over time or "breakthrough" improvement all at once.”

This post talks on how the PTM triplet is important for continuous improvement. PTM stands for practices, tools and metrics.

Agile practices as such may seem little cumbersome since it is required to have multiple checkpoints to ensure sanctity of the product under development. This can be made effective and efficient with tools usage. Hence, tools become an integral part of agile WoW (Way of Working). Usage of tools is a double edged sword. Though it helps in making job easier for team members, not having the right tools may in turn cause an opposite effect and later become an overhead for the team. Thus, it is important to identify and use right tools. The practices and tools are closely coupled in Agile WoW.

Usage of right tools help team in deriving proper metrics. These metrics helps the team with a feedback system on how the system is performing. Regular and timely feedback is critical for any system to change. i.e. for its continuous improvement.

Below is a high level view on PTM triplet:

Practices: Backlog grooming, daily standup, scrum of scrums, retrospectives, weekly releases, automated builds and test runs

Tools: Visual boards, redmine for bug logging, Hudson for hourly builds, static analyzer /code review tools, scripts for automation

Metrics: Lead time, cycle time for measuring team effectiveness, # of build failures in an iteration, # of reopened issues

The important point is to use the right tools, measure the right metrics and change things that do not work regularly.

Why capability models and certifications could be flawed!! By Design :)

Most organizations claim to be at various levels of maturity levels and certifications. These capability models and certifications do convey the process focus these organizations aspire to achieve, which is definitely a differentiating factor. However, these are just not enough, since there is a basic flaw to these models. Let me explain this.

Especially for larger organizations, for evaluating its maturity level, few projects or teams are selected and evaluated whether they comply with defined processes. The experts evaluate these teams, and accordingly certify the organization to be at a particular maturity level. The fun part is that the selected set of teams/projects could account to a very small group in an organization. And based on this evaluation, the organization is either certified or not certified.

Customers when they look for maturity levels, look at the organization maturity level, because that is what these certifications mean. What they are not aware is the capability level of team that they are going to partner with. They do not know or really not look at how good they are. They go by the organization capability level. And this is the simple reason why these certifications are not a good measure on team’s capability and may not work.

Instead, we need to focus on team capability. There needs to be a means of evaluating team’s capability rather than organization’s capability. As a customer, when I know that the team with which I will partner is the best available, I know I am going to get the best returns on my investment.

The capability models and certifications focus on a top down approach; instead what is required is a bottom up approach. If each team in the organization consists of great people, then that makes it a great organization. So the focus has to be at team level or rather at the individual level. 

Work Life Integration

We are all familiar with cliche "work life balance" and almost all talk about it. What I have observed is we really don't know when we are balanced, because this is always an act where either side goes up or down. We get confused on where to put right focus in the act of balancing out work and life.

Recently, I attended a discussion where I saw a paradigm shift on this view. The speaker was talking about "Work Life Integration" rather than “work life balance".  I felt this was a very powerful concept. When we focus on balancing work and life it always becomes a compromise. It is not win-win when we go for compromises in life, we always loose.

With Work Life Integration, we look at how we get the best out of our everyday life, keeping both work and personal life moving smooth. I have observed that it is practically difficult to follow a strict regimen of 9:00am to 6:00pm working hours and then 6:00pm to 9:00am to be completely dedicated for personal purposes. We are social beings and it is not easy to switch modes at the tick of a clock. There are many days where we are interrupted with personal stuffs during work hours and vice versa. When they happen, we just cannot keep a closed eye towards them. We need to attend to these, be it work or personal stuffs. The beauty of Work Life Integration is that we find best timings of the day that will help us focus on priorities of our life and then actually putting it into practice. For example, in my case, I mostly start work early and I prefer to have a silent time during mornings where I am mostly undisturbed. This helps me putting more focus on important stuffs. Since I prefer less distractions, being early at work helps me get more stuff done.

Above example is something that works for me. For each of us, we need to understand what will work for us the best and accordingly organize our day. This will help us become more productive and ensure that we achieve what we want to achieve in life.

For me, it is not “work life balance”, rather it is “Work Life Integration”. Just think over this.

Passion

One question that I hear and may not have a right answer is “How do you measure passion?”. When I hear this question, (I almost always hear this discussion during training sessions) it makes me laugh. The reason is, we are so metamorphosed that we always think in terms of metrices :-). “Man, you need not measure passion, look at the other person’s eyes”, is almost always my answer. If you really want to see it, that is the place where you see it. And if someone wants to measure it, all I tell is “god forbid and pardon this poor soul for his (her) ignorance”.

 OK, coming back to the point, I felt there is yet another way. Ask this question “What keeps you awake early in the morning? (read 4:00am or earlier)”. If there is anything that keeps you awake, this could be something that you are passionate about. (By the way, it is not insomnia. You better see a doctor then)

I have tried asking this question with different set of people and I get varied responses. Many a times I see people laughing away at that question, they claim to say that there is nothing that keeps them away from their sleep. I don’t know, if that is someone’s case. If it is true for you, you better be aware. Here, mostly what I have observed is, people are actually thinking deep for answer to this question while they try to make me feel that it is an irrelevant one. If someone is trying to do that, I would tell that this is a good sign. At least, you have experienced it once in your life.

I have also seen my best people, being completely lost when they do what they love the most. If you are not sure why you do it that way, it is very nicely explained in the book, Flow : The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Note: I woke up quiet early today morning and I felt like writing this early enough. Before I become lazy and forget :-)

Building TRUST

The other day, I was having a mentoring session with one of my leads. The whole discussion point started with a build failure and we ended up discussing for 90 minutes. There were 2 topics that came in during this discussion, symptoms and root causes. We debated on the root cause and finally it boiled down to having more TRUST among team members. We also did have a discussion on symptom and manifestation; however I plan to have it as a separate discussion later. The most important point that came up was “OK, how do we build trust”. I did not have a straight forward answer and I understand still I do not have it. That kept me thinking and I could come up with below framework. At least this is something where we could start.

 As always, my favourite and the most important one is COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE and COMMUNICATE. If there is good enough, healthy communication among team members and they are aligned on goals, we have almost won the battle. There are various effective channels of communicating with(in) team. The important part is to ensure that this is happening on a regular basis. There is a set cadence. 3 effective ways of having great communication are

• Regular retrospectives (Discussed this in an earlier thread here)
• Regular feedback sessions. The important aspect to be noted here is, this need to be both ways. (Again, discussed this in an earlier thread here)
• Timely appreciations. This is something most are not really good at. We take things for granted and forget. Did I say “forget”? (Shame on me)

Being “transparent” with team members is yet another important aspect. Let them know why we do, what we do. It is always better because when others understand this, they are inclined to appreciate stuffs better.

Being “consistent and predictable”. As leaders, we are always being watched. Consistency and predictability is the key. If we expect our team to be consistent and predictable, we better be.

Enable and empower them. A leader becomes effective only when the team members are able to replace the leader. And that is a definitive benchmark for any leader, how many in the team can replace leader himself. Gone are the days of command and control. A leader moves to next level only when the team elevates the leader up and not when the team members pull him down. When the next level is not rightly enabled and empowered, they pull you down :-)

Once the team members are enabled, the most important thing a leader can do is to give them their space. Let them be alone. Give their breathing space. Let them explore. But guide them.

Allow them to fail. The faster the team fails, the faster they learn, the better they become.

Any transformation takes time. Be patient. Steven Covey has put it right, when he mentioned about the law of Farming. There is no silver bullet, no short cut. If it takes so much time, give that time. There is a defined timeline to reap the benefits after we sow the seeds. The challenge here is to know how long we need to wait, since we cannot be waiting indefinitely. Wait as much required and know when it needs to quit.

And finally, make them feel important. The best way that has worked for me is to tell it on face. Never hesitate to tell the team members that “You are important!!!”. Believe me, it means a lot for them, and by the way when you tell that, do not fake. The new generation is smarter than us:-)

Universal Power

Long time since I blogged. To be frank, I was in depression:-). I hated blogging for some time. I felt things were not moving the way I wanted it to be (rather my way:-) ).

How long can one be depressed? Not too long. So I thought it is time to give way and yah, it is always a cycle. May be sooner I will again get into that cycle and there will be no blogs. But that does not mean that I will stop thinking about stuffs. It just means that I hate writing it out.

Last week, I was thinking about something interesting!!! What is God?

I am not an atheist. And here is my definition of god.

It is a universal power, a divine intervention that does things possibly which is beyond our control, things that human beings cannot do. And, when I think a little deep, I felt like this could have been initial reasons when “god” that we refer to came into existence. (correction here, god must have existed prior to that, otherwise we would not have existed, after all, it is the divine intervention). This is where I really get relate to the message that movie MATRIX is trying to tell. Something that is beyond human capability and that we could not visualize. One thing that I can be sure is that we are towards becoming god, (or is that a contradiction:-) ), because we are able to achieve more than we were able to do earlier. We understand things better then what we know earlier.

What actually surprises me is that we humans, even after gaining so much knowledge and control over other living beings, we are still “kids” in front of this “divine intervention”. We do not have much control over nature. Even with all the developments, knowhow that we achieved, we are always helpless, when nature shows its fury. We just become the victims.

The thoughts are going deeper and stronger… Time for me to stop…

Before I stop, let me answer this question, does god exist? Yes. May be not in the form that we are aware off. That was just the creation by creative people who were able to visualize better than us:-).

Happy new year, 2013, the year of Snakes.