Blog

The Agile Approach

By January 23, 2020 November 24th, 2023 No Comments
The Agile Approach

Chicago-based comedy institution The Second City birthed the careers of hundreds of legendary performers, including Chris Farley, Amy Poehler, and Gilda Radner. Before they hit it big on Saturday Night Live, those three—along with over two dozen other future SNL cast members—honed their skills improvising on Second City stages. One of the key tenets of improv is the importance of embracing and even celebrating mistakes. “You gotta learn to love when you’re failing,” says late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert, another Second City alum, recalling the advice a director gave him early in his career. “The embracing of that, the discomfort of failing in front of an audience, leads you to penetrate through the fear that blinds you. Fear is the mind killer.” 

Similarly, IT companies that are willing to experiment and adapt—and, yes, make mistakes—will likely see better results than those that rigidly and exclusively commit to existing strategies. The best way to discover inefficiencies and shortcomings is to commit to production and release and see where problems arise, or customers demand improvement. That’s where agile methodology comes in, a mentality that favors flexibility, feedback, and trial and error. 

The Agile Attitude 

At its core, agile is not about strategy or technology. It can be incorporated into industries besides software. It has more to do with a company’s willingness to listen to clients, and whether both parties can adjust expectations and goals. “The most important thing about agile is the organizational culture.” “The culture defines team output.” 

Standard IT practice follows a typical pattern: a company produces software for a client, usually operating under a specific budget and timeline (that isn’t always met). The client may check in from time to time, but ultimately there is no deliverable until the finished version is available. With agile, the company will release certain functionality as it’s completed, adjust those portions of the software after receiving notes, and even perhaps wrap the project early if the client decides they are satisfied once a certain percentage of their needs have been met. 

“Agile depends on constant customer feedback and engagement,” says Travis James Fell, a software product owner specializing in data management and analysis. “There’s lots of little development cycles baked into [every component of a project]. Each one should have its own product life cycle, product road map, product backlog, enhancement and defects, backlog, and overall ownership and development teams to ensure that it stays living and vibrant.” 

“You build this amazing [software] and you don’t release it, or people are not using it,” says Minumula. “What good is it? It’s just like inventory sitting in your warehouse, not doing anything. The whole point of agile is, don’t wait three months, six months building the product. Break down the product into two-week chunks or four-week chunks and then keep releasing it. Get feedback from the users.” 

Quantity vs. Quality 

Certified Scrum Master Mike Cohn is an expert in agile, and he explains it using the likely apocryphal example of an innovative ceramics class project. The instructor split the class in two, assigning half of them to produce as many pots as possible, and the other half challenged to create just one immaculate pot. Which group ultimately produced the better pots? The students tasked with producing pots en masse. 

Cohn’s takeaway is that there is a direct correlation between quantity and quality. Creating a multitude of pots allowed those students to realize where they made mistakes, and they began to course-correct. The students focused on creating a perfect pot, though, lacked the experience to account for their initial errors. 

The same goes for software development. No programmer will design a top-quality product on their very first effort. Likewise, it may take several drafts to meet clients’ needs. By using the agile approach, companies can find solutions along the way, build skills, and produce better output. 

Katalyst Can Help 

Katalyst provides more than just software solutions. Consult our experts about developing new approaches that can lead your organization to stronger relationships with satisfied customers. Agile could be the way of the future. After all, as Second City veteran Tina Fey puts it, “You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the water slide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.” 

Reach us
close slider

     

    Please prove you are human by selecting the plane.