Monday, September 12, 2005

Are iterations hazardous to your project?

Are iterations hazardous to your project?: "That surprise experience helped open my eyes to why 'iterations' may be hazardous to your project: Danger grows when the results of the iteration are not directly linked to delivering the product to the end user. Without that linkage, iteration results hang in the air just as badly as the old, pre-agile forms of wandering in the wilderness."

This could be filed under the general heading of "Don't let the process become the goal," which is a disease that strikes nearly every organization.

Here is how it happens:

Management wants feedback that the team is making progress towards a particular goal, so they add instrumentation to the process to gather metrics. The team responds by trying to improve those metrics. If management chooses the wrong metrics, the end effect is that they drive the team away from its goals, rather than towards them.

I think that all of Alistair's observations and recommendations are dead-on.