Updated My Personal Mission. Same Essence, Different Words

 

Eduardo Ferro's Personal Mission

Cultivate Happiness: Foster personal joy and spread happiness to those around me, starting with family and friends, while continuously expanding my circle of influence.

Methods of Achievement

• Responsibility and Respect: Uphold personal accountability and respect for others in all interactions.
• Balance Seeking: Strive for a harmonious balance in personal life and contribute towards global equilibrium.
• Authenticity: Remain true to myself in every aspect of life, including professional pursuits.
• Value Generation: Utilize my abilities to create both intrinsic and economic value, mindful of social and ethical considerations.
• Win-Win Scenarios: Continually seek outcomes that are mutually beneficial.
• Continuous Learning: Embrace lifelong learning, both personally and professionally.
• Conscious Decision-Making: Choose my reactions and actions thoughtfully.

Ethical Stance

Selective Engagement: Refrain from involvement with businesses that conflict with my values, including:

• Financial enterprises that prioritize profit over social and environmental responsibility.
• Weapon manufacturers and the military industry.
• Casinos and gambling enterprises.
• Entities involved in the abuse or exploitation of humans, animals, or the environment.
• Businesses that negatively impact the lives of stakeholders.

Vision for the Future

I believe we are at a pivotal moment where our actions can significantly impact the planet, both positively and negatively. It's crucial to remember this responsibility at all times. We are amidst a revolution that blends collaboration, knowledge, and a federation of power. Networks are becoming the structures of the future, and their growth should be both sustained and sustainable.

Professional Alignment

My focus is on engaging with green and teal organizations, where people are valued as the primary asset. I am drawn to environments that prioritize sustainable and ethical practices, recognizing the importance of human capital in driving positive change.

Personal Commitment

I engage with the world passionately and responsibly, yet always at a measured pace, ensuring a balanced approach in all my endeavors.

Learning lean/Agile concepts / short videos

 

Yesterday, my colleague Cristina Verdi asked for interesting resources to help introduce Lean Software / Product Development concepts.

I passed her a series of short videos that I always use to illustrate certain related concepts. I'm posting them here in case they can help someone.

Resource Efficiency vs Flow Efficiency:

• The Efficiency Paradox  (18m) by Niklas Modig
• The resource utilization trap (5m) by Henrik Kniberg

WIP Limits:

• Multiple WIP vs One Piece Flow Example (7m) by Henrik Kniberg

General processes / Team Work:

• Creating Value and Flow in Product Development (7m) by John Cutler  
• Stop starting and start finishing (5m) Jason Yip
• Making Work Visible: How to Unmask Capacity Killing WIP  (29m) Dominica DeGrandis 

Harnessing Efficiency: The Theory of Constraints in Software Development

This micro post was previously published at linkedin

Navigating the multi-faceted domain of software development often presents a series of bottlenecks that could hinder project momentum and delivery timelines. The Theory of Constraints (TOC) serves as a beacon, guiding teams to identify, address, and overcome these bottlenecks, thereby unlocking a pathway to streamlined processes and enhanced productivity.

Here's a snapshot of how TOC unfolds in software development:

1.  Identify the most important Constraint: Pinpoint the process, resource, or technology bottleneck obstructing progress (lack of quality, knowledge silos, convoluted deployment process, individual ownership about parts of the code or processes, etc.).
2. Exploit the Constraint: Maximize the efficiency of the identified constraint without additional resources (reducing the WIP, redirecting people to help with the bottleneck, etc.).
3. Subordinate Everything Else to the Constraint: Ensure all other processes are aligned to support and work around the constraint.
4. Elevate the Constraint: Allocate necessary resources to alleviate or eliminate the constraint, promoting better throughput (investing in automation, test automation, pair/ensemble programming to spread knowledge, feature toggles to reduce risk, etc.).
5. Repeat the Process: Embark on a cycle of continuous identification and resolution of constraints to foster a culture of ongoing improvement.

For a deeper dive into TOC and its application in IT landscapes, 'The Goal' by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and 'The Phoenix Project' by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George. Spafford are essential reads.

Using the Theory of Constraints (TOC) can help software development professionals and teams deal with problems smartly. It helps turn these problems into opportunities for improvement, growth and faster delivery.

Indeed, the Theory of Constraints relates to Lean Software Development and agile software development methodologies.

The lightning talk "Stop Starting and Start Finishing" by Jason Yip is one of the best explanations I know for understanding how to use TOC and other Lean ideas to optimize the sustained delivery flow of a software development team.

#TheoryOfConstraints #SoftwareDevelopment #ContinuousImprovement #TheGoal #LeanSoftwareDevelopment

The virtuous loop of software development

This micro post was previously published at linkedin

The ultimate aim is Continuous Delivery (CD), a goal that enables fast flow with rapid iterations and continuous feedback. At the same time, this goal promotes technical excellence and good design.

Continuous Integration (CI) is required (integrating at least once a day, also known as Trunk Based Development), along with a strong focus on Test-Driven Development (TDD) or other similar practices to ensure high confidence and emphasis on excellent and simple design. This approach is closely linked to Extreme Programming and the DevOps mindset, which emphasizes collaboration and continuous improvement. By following these principles, software development teams can enhance their efficiency and deliver high-quality products to customers.

Here are some related resources that you might find interesting:

• Continuous Delivery book by Jez Humble and Dave Farley
• Extreme Programming Explained book by Kent Beck
• Continuous Delivery YouTube channel by Dave Farley
• Lean Software Development by Mary and Tom Poppendieck
• Many More Much Smaller Steps (MMMSS) by GeePaw Hill
• MMMSS – The Intrinsic Benefit of Steps by GeePaw Hill 
• Minimum Viable CD 

Good talks/podcasts (Oct 2023 I)

These are the best podcasts/talks I've seen/listened to recently:

• The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation (Matthew May) [Lean, Lean Manufacturing] [Duration: 1:15:00] Interesting presentation on how Toyota incorporates continuous learning and innovation into the company's daily operations.
• "Simple Made Easy" (12-minute redux) by Rich Hickey (2011) (Rich Hickey) [Architecture, Inspirational, Scalability, Software Design] [Duration: 0:12:00] (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) This is a 12-minute redux of the 1-hour talk by Rich Hickey, for really impatient people. Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxdOUGdseq4
• Infrastructure as actual Code • YOW! 2022 (Gregor Hohpe) [Architecture, Architecture patterns, Infrastructure, Serverless] [Duration: 0:59:00] This talk shares recent trends in infrastructure automation, debunks some common misconceptions, and shows you how you can combine AWS’ serverless ecosystem and AWS CDK to rethink application development, deployment, and integration.
• Lean Turned Up to 10 (Chris Lucian, Austin Chadwick) [Lean Software Development, MobProgramming, Technical Practices] [Duration: 0:58:00] (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) Chris and Austin explain why mob programming could be a way to implement lean software development in current teams. Very interesting.
• LKUK13: Cynefin in Action - Liz Keogh (Liz Keogh) [Culture, Engineering Culture, Inspirational] [Duration: 0:51:00] In this talk Liz explains the Cynefin framework and other concepts as Real Options, Deliberate Discovery, Feature Injection, etc.

Reminder: All of these talks are interesting, even just listening to them.

Related:

• Recommended Talk/Podcast Database
• Recommended resources tag

The Art of Small Steps in Software Development: A Lean Vision

Have you ever played Tetris? If so, you know that every decision, every piece, and every move counts. The same applies to software development. Every choice, every line of code, and every interaction influences the final outcome. This post will explore how Lean software development and the "safe small steps" approach can simplify complexity and create efficient systems.

Small Steps: The Simplicity of Tetris

Just like in Tetris, where we choose where to place small pieces to complete lines, in software development, we continuously make decisions about how to build our product. These decisions, when made in small increments, allow us to:

• Iterate quickly: Fixes and adjustments are simpler.
• Reduce risks: We limit potential errors at each stage.
• Understand better: Each step is understood and analyzed more clearly.

Principles of Lean Software Development

Based on Lean philosophy, Lean software development focuses on maximizing customer value and minimizing waste. Some of the key principles include:

• Reduce waste: Eliminate the unnecessary and focus on the essentials. Every step must add value or increase the internal or external quality of the product.
• Decide as late as possible: Be flexible and adapt to changes. See Lean Software development: The art of postponing decisions.
• Deliver quickly: Allows for feedback and adaptation to customer needs.
• Build with integrity and quality: Ensures a reliable and long-lasting product. This is key to maintaining speed sustainably over time.
• Proactively simplify: Avoid unnecessary complexity and keep the system manageable. Simplification also adds value, protecting the current value and avoiding future costs.

Small Steps: The Simplicity and Continuity of Tetris

Tetris, one of the most iconic video games in history, presents us with a continuous and infinite challenge. In it, pieces of different shapes fall from the top of the screen at an increasing speed. Our task is to accommodate these pieces efficiently at the bottom, trying to fit them so that they complete horizontal lines. Completing these lines eliminates them, granting us points and, more importantly, space to continue playing.

In Tetris, value accumulates by adding points, piece by piece, line by line. However, the real challenge and essence of the game lie in balancing the accumulation of that value (points) while managing increasing complexity (the accumulated pieces). If we allow the pieces to pile up and reach the top of the screen, we lose the game.

Similarly, in software development, we continuously decide how to build our product. Like in Tetris, we must accumulate value (features and characteristics) while managing and keeping complexity at bay. These decisions, when made in small increments or "steps," allow us to:

• Iterate quickly: Fixes and adjustments are simpler.
• Reduce risks: We limit potential errors at each stage.
• Understand better: Each step is understood and analyzed more clearly.

Tetris / Larger vs Smaller pieces

Just like playing with large pieces in Tetris, working with large steps in software development makes the game/work much more difficult and stressful.

Conclusion

Software development is not just about writing code; it's about making informed and continuous decisions to create valuable products. Just like in Tetris, every piece, every step, counts. Embrace the Lean philosophy and focus on safe small steps to simplify, adapt, and deliver with quality.

If this approach has intrigued you, I invite you to delve deeper into Lean software development and experience how it can transform your development process.

Related:

• http://www.poppendieck.com/
• Lean Software Development books 
• Lean Software development: The art of postponing decisions