Eight to Late

As readers of these chronicles will know, the ebb in demand for the services of private detectives had forced Mr. Holmes to deploy his considerable intellectual powers in the service of large multinationals. Yet, despite many successes, he remained ambivalent about the change.

As he once remarked to me, “the criminal mind is easier to analyse than that of the average executive: the former displays a clarity of thought that tends to be largely absent in the latter.”

Harsh words, perhaps, but judging from the muddle-headed thinking I have witnessed in the corporate world, I think his assessment is fair.

The matter of the Agile rituals is a case in point.

–x–

It was a crisp autumn morning. I had risen at the crack of dawn and gone for my customary constitutional. As I opened the door to 221B on my return, I was greeted by the unmistakable aroma of cooked eggs and bacon. Holmes, who is usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he is up all night, was seated at the table, tucking into an English Breakfast.

“Should you be eating that?” I queried, as I hung my coat on the rack.

“You underestimate the Classic English Breakfast,” he said, waving a fork in my direction. “Yes, its nutritional benefits are overstated, but the true value of the repast lies in the ritual of cooking and consuming it.”

“The ritual?? I was under the impression that rituals have more to do with the church than the kitchen.”

“Ah, Watson, you are mistaken. Practically every aspect of human life has its rituals, whether it be dressing up for work or even doing work. Any activity that follows a set sequence of steps can become a ritual – by which I mean something that can be done without conscious thought.”

“But, is not that an invitation for disaster? If one does not think about what one is doing, one will almost certainly make errors.”

“Precisely,” he replied, “and that is the paradox of ritualisation. There are certain activities that are safe to ritualise, so to speak. Preparing and partaking this spread, for example. It offers the comfort of doing something familiar and enjoyable – and there is no downside, barring a clogged capillary or two. The problem is that there are other activities that, when ritualised, turn out to be downright dangerous.”

“For example?” I was intrigued.

He smiled. “For that I shall ask you to wait until we go to BigCorp’s offices later today.”

“BigCorp??”

“So many questions, Watson. Come with me and all will be clear.”

–x–

We were seated in Jarvis’ office. He was BigCorp’s Head of Technology.

“Mr. Holmes, I was surprised to get your call this morning,” said Jarvis. “You were on site this Monday so I thought it would be at least a few more weeks before we heard from you. Doesn’t it take time to analyse all the information you collected from our teams? From what I was told you took away reams of transcripts and project plans.”

“Not all data is information, most of it is noise,” replied Holmes. “It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”

“I see,” said Jarvis. The look on his face said he clearly didn’t.

“Let me get straight to the point,” said Holmes. “BigCorp implemented XXXX Agile framework across the organisation a year ago with the expectation it would improve customer satisfaction with projects delivered. In particular, the intent was to follow Agile Principles. So, you adapted and implemented Agile practices from XXXX that would enable you to operationalise the principles. Would that be a fair summary?” (Editor’s note: the name of the framework has been redacted at Mr. Holmes’ request)

“Yes, that is correct,” nodded Jarvis.

“My conversations with your staff make it clear that the practices and processes have indeed been adapted and implemented. And this has been confirmed by the many project documents I checked,” said Holmes.

“So, where’s the problem then?” queried Jarvis.

“Adopting a practice or process is no guarantee that it will be implemented correctly.” said Holmes.

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“It seems that your staff follow Agile practices ritualistically with no thought about the intent behind them. For example, stand up meetings are treated as forums to enforce specific points of view rather than debate them. Instead of surfacing issues and dealing with them in a way that works for all parties, the meetings invariably end up with winners and losers. This is totally counter to the Agile philosophy. As an observer, it seemed to me that there was no sense of ‘being in it together’ or wanting to get the best outcome for the customer.”

“How many meetings did you attend, Mr. Holmes?””

“Three.”

“Surely that is too small a sample to generalise from,” said Jarvis.

“Not if you know what to look for. You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles. Things such as attitude, tone of voice, engagement, empathy etc. Believe me, I saw enough to tell me what is wrong. Your people have implemented practices but not the intent behind them.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“OK, an example might help. One of the Agile principles states that changing requirements are welcomed, even late in development. In one of the meetings I attended, the PM shut down a discussion about changes that the customer wanted by offering technical excuses. The conversation was used to enforce a viewpoint that is centred on BigCorp’s interests rather than those of the customer. Is that not counter to Agile principles? Surely, even if the customer is asking for something unreasonable, it is incumbent on your team to work towards mutual agreement rather than shutting them down summarily.”

“Hmm, I see. So, what do you recommend, Mr. Holmes?”

“You are not going to like what I say, Mr. Jarvis, but the fault lies with you and your management team. You have created an environment that is not conducive to the mindset and dispositions required to be truly Agile. As a result, what you have are its rituals, followed mindlessly. Only you can change that.”

“How?”

“By creating an environment that encourages your staff to develop an Agile mindset without fear of failure. I can recommend a reference or two.”

“That would be helpful Mr. Holmes,” said Jarvis.

Holmes elaborated on the reference and what Jarvis and his team needed to do. The conversation then moved on to other matters that are not relevant to my tale.

–x–

“That was excellent, Holmes,” I remarked, as we made our way out of the BigCorp Office.

“No, it’s elementary,” he replied with a smile, “it is simply that many practitioners prefer not to think about what it means to be Agile. Blindly enacting its rituals is so much easier.”

–x–

Notes:

1. There are three quotes taken from Sherlock Holmes stories in the above piece. Can you spot them? (Hint: they are not in the last section.)
2. See this post for more on rituals in information system design and development.
3. And finally, for a detailed discussion of an approach that privileges intent over process, check out my book on data science strategy.