Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

In an upcoming Executive Update ("The Agile Triangle Evolves as a Lean-Agile Prism," June 2010), I introduce the Lean-Agile Prism, the premise of which is to go beyond the agile triangle by giving high importance to design.

Hace poco escribí un Executive Update que introduce el Prisma Lean-Agile cuya premisa es ir más allá del triángulo agile dando gran importancia al diseño. Conforme dí pláticas sobre el Prisma, algunas personas comentaron que sólo se aplica a las aplicaciones comerciales donde el atractivo visual es importante.

© The Ken Orr Institute, 7 May 2010.

We have a number of hidden taxes, and complexity is becoming one of the worst ones. Every time we go to an airport, we encounter the Osama bin Laden tax at security, where it costs time and money to ensure our safety.

Everyone would like to have craftsman-level quality, but few are willing to devote the time or spend the money craftsmanship requires. Craftsmen working in hard goods, such as leather or silver, mitigate these factors by using devices such as patterns or molds that they can use to quickly replicate a high-quality design many times over. They have built these patterns based on their past experience. They've "materialized" experience into a tool.

How many times have you heard the phrase "strategic technology"? Every time I read it or hear it, I bristle, especially right after I wrote it or said it and committed the error I am about to rail against. If everyone would just say "strategic uses of technology," I would feel much better.

Governance is a loaded term. It evokes a strong visceral reaction in software development teams. It is mostly viewed as a rigid exercise of control and perceived as a threat to the autonomy of the team and its creativity. But it need not be so.