Self adjustment to constraints
In the recent past I noticed an interesting property of self adjusting systems. They self adjust !
So when work in progress started to accumulate and stories ‘completed’ piled on the doorsteps of QA, production of new features essentially stopped. Granted, part of it was due to the number of bugs found. But given the level of energy displayed by the team, that was not the whole reason. Here is how physical systems work: when a pipe is blocked water stops flowing and typically an equilibrium is reached where water becomes stagnant at a stable level. When no equilibrium is reached it is called a flood.
Since then our team’s management has had a good idea, tell people what they were expected to finish by the end of the year. Not surprisingly, setting a clear goal energised people a bit and production has started again. Work in progress has tripled and the pile in on QA’s doorstep has doubled. Nothing short of normal in a two iteration period.
On the positive side we have the opportunity to get the development team rolling into the new year with the warm feeling of mission accomplished. Sure we now all know what mission accomplished means. It means there is a whole more work to be done before the work is actually done and delivered. But having a sense of accomplishment, given the tough economy and looming work force reduction, will be invaluable.
On the negative, let’s brace for a good month of flooding.
