userstories

Looking across the state of teams today I can clearly see three different styles of agile: Backlog Driven Development, Reactive and Objective Driven Agile. All have their place, all have their uses but the first two of these are a dead end. I’ve been speaking about the third, which I’m calling Objective Driven Agile, for years but in the last few months, since writing Succeeding with OKRs in Agile and speaking to many people about how OKRs and agile fit together, it has become clear to me that ODA allow us the industry, and teams, to address a number of problems that have arisen with agile in recent years.

1) Backlog Driven Development – BLDD. Teams are typically working in a Scrum fashion with a backlog and short sprints. Such teams are sometimes called “feature factories” because they are aiming to “do the backlog” – and the backlog is inevitably a lis of features.

While the Scrum these teams practice is a lot more agile than what came before they haven’t really moved very far from the big requirements documents of old. Backlogs are frequently bottomless pits, the team can never reach done. The loss of change review board might well be making things worse because Product Owners often lack the authority to say “No” or remove items from the backlog.

Still, not only are these teams agile but in many places this is success. The team are churning out stories, customers can see progress and are persuaded to part with cash. If the backlog can be tamed they might even declare done one day. But then, if the team is being operated by a consultancy or other outsourcer for a client the last thing they want to happen is for work to be done.

2) Reactive. Reactive teams gravitate towards Kanban but some are compelled to work in a Scrum fashion which doesn’t match their real work. Such teams may see backlogs are an anathema because they do “what is needed, right here, right now.” Team members here will say “true agility is listening to what customers want and getting it done as quickly as possible.” And in a way they are right.

Again, these teams are a success story, particularly if they are supporting a live system, running DevOps or if customers previously had to wait months for results.

The problem here is that these teams don’t have much capacity for doing the backlog or anything else and yet they are frequently still expect to “do the backlog”. If such a team have been tasked with immediate customer support then that isn’t a problem but frequently these teams face competing demands.

3) Objective Driven Agile, ODA: this is the approach I’m focused on at the moment. With Objective Driven Agile teams have a mission and a higher purpose, something more than “do the backlog” or “keep the system working.” Such teams might be considered “Empowered” and might practice “Dual track agile.” The key thing is, they are not beholden to a prepared list of things to do. The team are responsible for deciding what customers need, what will add value and what will meet team and organisational objectives, and then, delivering that thing.

These teams have “Product Owners” who are more than mere Backlog Administrators – I’ve started calling them “Product Specialists.” These people are tasked with understanding what will add value for customers, users and other stakeholders. Importantly they have the power to decide what gets done and to say “No”. With that power comes responsibility: responsibility to the team, to stakeholders and to other leaders in the organization. That means Product Specialists can explain – in a business case or in a star-chamber – how work on the product adds benefit and how the desired outcome – the objective – is moves things forward.

All three of these styles have their advantages and disadvantages but the real problems occur when the styles are not clearly stated.

Consider the team trying to deliver the backlog BLDD style but who have to “keep the lights on” and support a live system. It is mathematically impossible to make accurate forecasts about delivery when events can derail you. It is also nye on impossible to deny customer requests when they are waiving a large sum of money or escalating their ask through your organization. But again, this can blow up any plan or roadmap.

Nor is is possible to pursue objectives when teams are committed to supporting live or delivering a backlog. At best the objectives duplicate the role of the backlog and at worst increase work-in-progress and add stress to individuals on the team.

So my advice: decide which type of team you are and focus.

In the last few months I’ve been speaking a lot both about objectives and “just in time backlogs”. I’m fired up and want to pursue this idea, if you are interested please let me know and I’ll write more.

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