Inspiration

I’m suffering from blogger’s block this weekend – I can’t think of a topic for a new post. I’ve jotted down lots of small things but nothing that I could write more than a paragraph on. But if I dig a bit deeper, I don’t think the topics are the problem – I just can’t conjure up enough excitement to give any of them enough attention. It’s a good thing I’m not getting paid to update this blog – a job comes with expectations and timelines, and trying to be creative under pressure is just not conducive to producing something worthwhile.

So how do developers cope when faced with a deadline? I remember when I was a developer that I often needed to leave a problem overnight before I could start to find potential solutions. But that was back in the bad old days of waterfall or plan-driven development – someone sets a deadline (usually an artificial one) and then we had to meet it.

How is an agile approach better? Here are a few things which spring to mind:

Deadlines are rare, but when there really is a deadline then the scope is variable. It ought to be obvious but I’ll spell it out because this should have been true in waterfall too but rarely was – if you fix all three sides of the iron triangle (time, cost & scope) then the only variable left is quality. Time is fixed because of the deadline; cost is the equivalent to the number of people working on it; so if you don’t allow scope to change then you’re basically forcing developers to cut corners. [I’m ignoring the argument for adding more people when the deadline looms – Fred Brooks covered this many years ago.]

Rather than adding people when it’s too late, why not start with two (or more) people working together from the beginning? Most companies require code changes be reviewed because they know having a second person look at a problem helps improve the quality … but collaborating on the design (when you’re tackling the problem) rather than reviewing the code (when you’ve picked a solution and gone down that route) results in an even better outcome. Having someone to discuss ideas with is so valuable that solo developers often use “rubber ducking” (yes, talking to a rubber duck!) as a way to clarify their thinking.

I find visualisation to be incredibly useful, for myself and when I’m sharing a concept with someone I’m coaching. When a team is discussing their confidence in meeting their sprint commitment, I find a burndown chart can challenge the overly-optimistic (“We’ll get it all done on the last day”) and lead to conversations with the product owner about relative priorities, expectations, etc. When discussing a new feature and how it will benefit the end-users, sketching the user interface may help build a common understanding, and story mapping can build empathy with the customer.

Frequent feedback can help too. Sometimes the enormity of a problem can be daunting, so break it down into more manageable pieces and take smaller steps towards the goal. Getting feedback on a small part of the challenge can be stimulating and provide inspiration for the next steps.

Please leave a comment: how do you cope when you hit a creative block?