FOR CUSTOMERS ONLY

by Ken Schwaber, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium

Have any of your software development projects surprised you because they failed utterly, didn't come in on time, were of low quality, or took longer to deliver than you expected? You may take comfort in the knowledge that you weren't singled out; that everyone else who initiates and funds software development projects has experienced the same. Most of you share a common experience. In the political arena, you were "spun." In crime, you were "conned." In a relationship, you were "cheated on." If you have teenagers, you were lied to. Underlying it all is the thread that your software development project team worked, at both a conscious and unconscious level, to keep you in the dark, out of the loop, and deceived.

I run a class that teaches project managers to manage projects using Agile processes. Agile software development requires you, the customer, to actively collaborate with the development teams to optimize the value you get from your investment and to get the functionality that you need to meet your objectives. In this course, I run a number of exercises to explore how Agile project managers facilitate this process. In the exercises, a difficult project is initiated.

There are many risks in the technology as well as difficult choices to be made in how to support the business goals with the technology. The point of the exercises is to create a scenario in which the development teams actively collaborate with you to help you minimize your risk while maximizing your value.

Many people in these courses have excelled. However, a disturbing number of these project managers are unable to help you understand your risks and alternatives. Not because they aren't aware of them; not because they don't know that the project may not succeed or meet your expectations; but because they are afraid to tell you the truth. Even while fully understanding the risks, these people will tell you that they are absolutely confident that they can deliver the project on time with what you need. Words like certainly, positively, no-problem, slam-dunk, and without a doubt slip from their lips even though their minds and experience tells them otherwise. When I ask them why they mislead you and don't share their opinions with you, these people to whom you entrust your success and money claim that they don't want to discourage you, that they want to put a positive spin on things, and that you wouldn't work with them if they weren't positive. They tell me that you would simply select someone who tells you "no problem" if they raised the specter of risk and doubt.

I ask these people how they would feel if they were treated the same way when buying something themselves. What if they entered an expensive restaurant and ordered a steak. The waiter and the chef know that the beef is old and that it comes from a herd where mad-cow disease has been spotted, yet they figure that what you don't know won't hurt you, that your actual chance of getting ill is pretty low, and that they will be elsewhere if you do become ill. All of the participants tell me that they would be furious! I ask them where they get the nerve to assess your risks for you and gamble your money in the face of uncertainty. What I hear back is a combination of fear, uncertainty, and bad habit.

Except for the newest project managers, the software development profession is coming out of a period of 20 years during which it was at least difficult and many times impossible to tell whether your project would succeed. You weren't being lied to; the project managers just didn't know. In addition, because of the process used to manage systems development, they didn't have any way to determine whether or not your project would be successful until well into the project and your money. They lied to cover up the appalling truth that, in the face of your probability of success, only a desperate person would fund a project.

This has led to a state in which many venture capitalists and enterprises are turning to offshore development. These peers of yours have told me a number of times that they are doing this not to reduce the cost of a successful project, but to limit their losses. If the project is going to fail anyway, better to lose $500k than $1,500k.

Agile processes provide an opportunity to turn around this unfortunate situation. Month by month, all of the information is available for you to maximize your return on investment and to optimize your risk strategies -- but only if they aren't hidden from you. Although slow and painful, and in the face of a history of hiding and mistrust, we are developing project managers who are confident of what they can and can't do with your project. Look for them. Don't look for the person who tells you what you want to hear, even though you know it is impossible; that your project is "no problem" and that the project manager is "absolutely confident." Would you buy a used car from such a person?

-- Ken Schwaber, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium