Page 71 - DCAP405_SOFTWARE_ENGINEERING

Software Engineering

Notes

Task Agility is not merely reaction, but also action. Analyze.
Nimbleness and Improvisation

In our volatile economy, companies need to enhance their “exploration” skills at every level of
the organization. Good explorers are Agile explorers—they know how to juggle and improvise.
Indiana Jones was a good explorer, somehow living through every outlandish
adventure. Agility means quickness, lightness, and nimbleness—the ability to act rapidly, the
ability to do the minimum necessary to get a job done, and the ability to adapt to changing
conditions. Agility also requires innovation and creativity—the ability to envision new products
and new ways of doing business. In particular, IT organizations have not done an adequate job
of balancing the needs of exploration and optimization.
The actors in the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon display incredible agility—running
lightly along the tiniest tree branches and showing extraordinary dexterity in sword fighting.
Beginning martial arts students are clumsy, not Agile. They become skilled, and Agile, from
long hours of training and effective mentoring. Sometimes their drills are repetitive and
prescriptive, but only as part of learning.

Agility also requires discipline and skill. A skilled software designer can be more Agile than a
beginner because he or she has a better sense of quality. Beginners, with little sense of what is
good and what is not, can just revolve in circles—lots of change but not much progress.
“We view the issue as one of almost ‘disciplined messiness,’” remarked Bob in an email exchange.
“You need to have a very good discipline in place to be able to respond in turbulent times, yet
simultaneously know when to be ‘undisciplined.’ I view anticipation to be actively seeking
situations where the generally accepted guiding rules or principles no longer apply, or where
shortcuts are the least risky approach to take to gaining some objective. To be able to understand
when the rules don’t apply, you need to completely understand when they do.”

Example: Picasso had to become an accomplished fine arts painter to get to a point
where he was able to move past that perception of “good art” and create abstract painting. He
had to be skilled before he could be Agile.
Agile individuals can improvise, they know the rules and boundaries, but they also know when
the problem at hand has moved into uncharted areas. They know how to extend their knowledge
into unforeseen realms, to experiment, and to learn. When critical things need to get done, call
on the great improvisers.
Improvisation makes great jazz bands. From a few key structural rules, jazz bands improvise
extensively. Having a solid foundation enables their tremendous flexibility without allowing
the music to degenerate into chaos. The proponents of business process reengineering and
software engineering methodologies probably blanch at the thought that improvisation, rather
than carefully articulated processes, are key to success. Yet in today’s turbulent environment,
staff members with good balancing, judging, and improvisational skills are truly invaluable.

Conformance to Actual

There are two answers to this constant question. First, control focuses on boundaries and simple
rules rather than prescriptive, detailed procedures and processes. The second aspect of control,
though simple in concept, is completely foreign to many managers.

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