Embracing Uncertainty: A Most Difficult Leap of Faith

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For the past couple of years, Dan North has been working with and studying teams who are dramatically more productive than any he's ever seen. In weeks they produce results that take other teams months. One of the central behaviors Dan has observed is their ability to embrace uncertainty, holding multiple contradictory opinions at the same time and deferring commitment until there is a good reason. Embracing uncertainty lies at the heart of agile delivery and is one of the primary reasons organizations struggle with agile adoption. We are desperately uncomfortable with uncertainty, so much so that we will replace it with anything-even things we know to be wrong. Dan claims we have turned our back on the original Agile Manifesto, and explains why understanding risk and embracing uncertainty are fundamental to agile delivery-and why we find it so scary. He describes how techniques like real options and deliberate discovery can expose dogma and make life more manageable. Join Dan to learn ways to face-and even embrace-uncertainty with courage and determination.

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KT1 Keynote 11/8/2012 8:30 AM 

       

"Embracing Uncertainty: A Most Difficult Leap of Faith"

   

Presented by:

Dan North Lean Technology Specialist

        

Brought to you by:  

  

340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073 888‐268‐8770 ∙ 904‐278‐0524 ∙ sqeinfo@sqe.com ∙ www.sqe.com

Dan North Lean Technology Specialist

Programmer and organizational change specialist Dan North applies principles from lean operations and agile software development to help organizations align their technology capabilities with their business objectives. With twenty years of experience in IT, Dan is a frequent speaker at technology conferences worldwide, has published feature articles in numerous software and business publications, and contributed to The RSpec Book: Behaviour Driven Development with RSpec, Cucumber, and Friends and97 Things Every Programmer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts. The originator of Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD) and Deliberate Discovery, Dan is currently working on his book Patterns of Effective Delivery, helping organizations radically improve their delivery. He blogs at dannorth.net.

Embracing Uncertainty

Dan North

Dan North & Associates

@tastapod

Patterns of

Effective

Delivery

@tastapod

Faster

Software

Delivery

@tastapod

With apologies to George Lucas…

Fear leads to Risk

Risk leads to Process

Process leads to Hate

…and suffering and product backlogs

@tastapod

With apologies to George Lucas…

Fear leads to Risk

Risk leads to Process

Process leads to Hate

…and suffering and product backlogs

@tastapod

Understanding risk Impact

Likelihood [0.0, 1.0]

@tastapod

Snowbird 2001

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

@tastapod

Everywhere 2012

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

@tastapod

Everywhere 2012

Processes and tools over individuals and interactions

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

@tastapod

Everywhere 2012

Processes and tools over individuals and interactions

Comprehensive documentation over working software

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

@tastapod

Everywhere 2012

Processes and tools over individuals and interactions

Comprehensive documentation over working software

Contract negotiation over customer collaboration

Responding to change over following a plan

@tastapod

Everywhere 2012

Processes and tools over individuals and interactions

Comprehensive documentation over working software

Contract negotiation over customer collaboration

Following a plan over responding to change

@tastapod

We crave certainty!

Faith becomes religion

Complex questions become simplistic answers

Interpretation becomes dogma

We would rather be wrong than uncertain

@tastapod

So we resist uncertainty

We resist uncertainty of scope We resist uncertainty of technology We resist uncertainty of effort We resist uncertainty of structure

We resist uncertainty of the future

@tastapod

Three Ages: a model of growth

1. Explore - optimize for discovery

2. Stabilize

- optimize for repeatability

3. Commoditize

- optimize for efficiency

Agile methods optimize for the Second Age

@tastapod

Agile methods optimize for certainty

Certainty gives us predictability

Predictability gives us repeatability

Repeatability gives us a feeling of safety

@tastapod

Deliberate discovery

Ignorance is your biggest constraint

You are second order ignorant (but not third!)

Ignorance is multivariate and disjoint

Some unexpected bad things will happen

@tastapod

Deliberate discovery

Ignorance is your biggest constraint

You are second order ignorant (but not third!)

Ignorance is multivariate and disjoint

Some unexpected bad things will happen

@tastapod

Deliberate discovery

Ignorance is your biggest constraint

You are second order ignorant (but not third!)

Ignorance is multivariate and disjoint

Some unexpected bad things will happen

@tastapod

Deliberate discovery

Ignorance is your biggest constraint

You are second order ignorant (but not third!)

Ignorance is multivariate and disjoint

Some unexpected bad things will happen

@tastapod

Real Options

Options have value

Options expire

Commit deliberately

“Never commit early unless you know why”

@tastapod

Embracing uncertainty

Embrace uncertainty of scope

Embrace uncertainty of technology

Embrace uncertainty of effort

Embrace uncertainty of structure

@tastapod

Why you won’t believe me

Attribution bias

Confirmation bias

Bias bias

But most of all, that craving for certainty!

@tastapod

tl; dr

Expect the unexpected

@tastapod

tl; dr

Expect the unexpectable

Anticipate ignorance

Embrace uncertainty – it’s inevitable!

@tastapod

Thanks for listening

@tastapod

http://dannorth.net

dan@dannorth.net

@tastapod

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