Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Minimizing the feedback loops

As summer vacations approach, I'm thinking of things I would like to see changed where I feel a recharge is needed before I can take up on those challenges. And I'm noticing a theme: I want to work on minimizing the feedback loops.

The most traditional of the feedback loops is to have the feature just implemented in the hands of the users. I keep pushing towards continuous releasing and related cultural changes in how we collaborate on making the changes that get published.

But it's not just pushing the changes for the end users to potentially suffer from. There's a lot of in-company feedback that I'd like to see improve.  I get frustrated with days like yesterday when all test automation was failing and I still fail to get introduced the changes that would stop the automation from failing from a single prerequisite outside my teams powers. People like walking on roads travelled before, when there would be opportunities for better if we seek out ways to do things differently.

The feedback loop that seems the hardest is the one of collaboration. We co-exists, in very friendly terms. But we don't pair, we don't mob and we don't share as I would like to see us share.

Maybe after the vacations, I will just push for experimenting while making others uncomfortable, in short time boxes. It's clear there are things to do that will make me uncomfortable alone as well, but the ultimate discomfort for me seems to be making others uncomfortable.