Previously
40 graphs from across the web
Today
Waterfall and Agile through the lens of RISK.
And stick around to the end to grab your free Waterfall vs Agile Cheat Sheet.
Welcome to Development That Pays
I'm Gary Straughan
I was reminded this week of the best boss I ever worked for.
An Irishman through and through
there was always a bottle of whiskey in his desk drawer
I hasten to add that that it only came out on very special occasions
Such as taking the edge off an all-nighter
When I take work to him for review
He's always start by saying that it was awesome
and he'd proceed,
line by line
to rip it apart
One day he must have seen the look of annoyance on my face and he said to me
"Gary, if this didn't exist, I wouldn't be able to comment on it"
I took some comfort from that.
These are the graphs we were looking at a week ago
Thanks to James Allen for letting me know that the likely origin is VersionOne.
I've put it I have put a link to the article in the notes below.
Now that I know where they cames from
I feel slightly awkward about being critical of the graphs
But, hey,
If they didn't exist,
I wouldn't be able to comment
So it's all good,
I thought we might take a look at the RISK graph
Because this one make no sense to me
Let's look at this logically
When I think about the risk of a project, there are two types that come to mind.
1.
The risk of missing a launch deadline.
2.
The risk of missing the mark.
Producing a product that nobody wants.
The first is inconvenient: a delay in recouping your investment
The second is a disaster: no chance of recouping your investment.
Ever.
So let's stick with the risk of missing the mark.
The risk of Total Project Failure.
When a project misses the mark, why does it miss the mark?
Well, we built something that no one wanted
And why did we build something that no one wanted?
Because we didn't know the customer well enough
We didn't learn enough.
Now, there are also several forms of LEANING.
Agile teams have retrospectives to help them
to learn to be better agile teams.
This is NOT kind of learning I'm talking about here.
I'm specifically talking about learning about the market
Lets try a graph of learning.
Actually no.
I'm going to do graph of the RESULT of learning:
Knowledge
(You'll see why that distinction is important in a moment.)
I'm going to label it "market knowledge" just so we're super clear.
Starting with a Waterfall project.
Just so I can keep track,
I'm going to bring down the stages of a Waterfall project.
Stretch it a little bit.
Ok, the project kicks off.
At the beginning of a project, the level of knowledge is low.
Through the Requirements Gathering stage
and I suppose during...
the Design phase, the knowledge level goes up.
Not sure about the shape
Don't think it's this:
if you're are gaining knowledge at this rate
why would you stop?
After all, in a Waterfall project this is your one and only chance to learn
So maybe it flattens out.
The project moves in to the build phase
If we're building we're not learning
The knowledge curve is flat
Actually..
It's not flat.
But Knowledge is perishable.
While we're building, the market is changing
The knowledge we acquired starts to go out of date.
Again, not sure about the shape
Maybe this?
Can't think that moving to the testing phase would change anything
So on it continues until the day of the launch.
Let's do the same for Agile.
Maybe start with a spot of research.
But not a huge amount.
Build something
Quickly.
Before the knowledge has a chance to "go off"
Release something.
Something small
Gain some knowledge
Build a bit more
Gain more knowledge
Rinse and repeat.
There are diminished returns
We end up with something like that.
Smoothed out, there's an s-curve hiding here
Some of you said that you'd prefer to see the bumps.
We'll discuss that another time.
For now I'm going to go with the smooth version
Is too much of a stretch to say that knowledge is the antithesis of risk?
If that's only partly true, the risk curves are going to look like
flipped versions of the knowledge curves.
Three, two, one.
Flip
Fix the label
Take way the knowledge curves
Overlay them
Lovely.
Hold on a second.
Both projects started at the same level of risk Just move that.
I think we're ready to bring back the first graph
Well, what can I say
The Agile curves .... are broad agreement.
The Waterfall curves.... are not even close.
I think we're gone long on time
so two quick things before we wrap up.
These graphs are so different, that I feel must have missed something.
I'd love to know what you think.
Go crazy in the comments below.
And if you haven't done so already,
Grab your copy of that Waterfall vs Agile Cheat Sheet
You'll find a link in the description below.
Click the link, follow the instructions, and it's all yours.
Thank you very much for watching.
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I look forward to talking to you next time.
Cheers for now.