Page - 220 - in The Future of Software Quality Assurance

220 R.van Solingen thevalueyouexpectandyouget feedbackonwhat is sensibleandwhat isnot.With this knowledge, the dolphin dives under water again and emerges a little later. A dolphin works with so-called iterations or sprints (repetitions)—always diving and surfacing again. Breathe, check if you’re still going in the right direction or decide tomakeadjustments.Andthenquicklydiveunder thesurfaceagainandre-emerge. Thedolphinapproachisalsocalledthesee-you-soonmodel.Trytodeliverresults in everythingyoudoasquicklyaspossibleandaskforfeedback.You’llsee thatyou’ll get results soonerand thatyou’ll also get toknowmuchsoonerwhichpartsofyour original plan aren’t needed at all. And that’s how agile speeds things up. It’s not aboutworkingharder, it’saboutworkingsmarter.Discoveringwhatyoudon’thave to do because it has no value, saves a lot of time. And it gives you the opportunity todeliverearlieror todeliveradditionalvalue. The two differentapproachesfunction ina totallydifferentway: • It’sfinishedat theendversus it’s alwaysfinished. • Feedbackat theendversusfeedbackfromthebeginning. • No interimadjustmentsversusconstantadjustments. • Not beingable to stophalfwayversusalwaysbeingable to stop. • Value only comes when everything is finished versus the most valuable thing comesfirst. • Accumulatingrisksversushighlightingrisks. In short, working in long cycles versus working in short cycles. Agile working really is fundamentally different. In a dynamic and complex world where a great deal is changing and under discussion, it is smarter to work in short cycles. That works much better here. Agile working means swimming like a dolphin: always resurfacingandadjustingon thebasisofconcrete resultsandnewinsights. 3 Whento BeAgileandWhen Not? Agile is not a silver bullet. It is not the solution to all problems. Agile is suited to situations where there is a lot of uncertainty.Where a lot is still changingand a lot is still beingdiscovered.These are also what we call complex situations. Youknow beforehandthatmanythingswill still changeandafterwardsyoualwaysknowhow it should have been done. It’s about the degree of (un)certainty in this choice of whether agile will help or not. Agile helps in particular when work is complexand cannot be planned in advance. An alternative to agile is lean. Lean is especially helpfulwhen thework is clearer. It maybe complicated,but throughrepetition it is possible tomaster theworkandmake it plannable. The best way to explain when agile makes sense and when it doesn’t is to use the model created by Ralph Stacey (Fig. 2). This model describes the different situations that can arise when both the certainty about what is needed and when it canbeachieveddecreases.Whetherornotagileworkingisagoodchoiceisstrongly dependenton thisdegreeof (un)certainty: