Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools

“Individuals and interactions over processes and tools” is the first value proposition of The Manifesto for Agile Software Development. What exactly does that mean? In many organizations, process conformance, standardized ALM tools, and PMOs have become the norm. They all seem to try standardizing the practices to improve quality and demonstrate maturity, seemingly at the expense of individuality and creativity. Many of these programs seem to lose sight of the real purpose of the enterprise, to product products that customers are willing to pay for. Are customers willing to pay for a functional spec? A design spec? Not usually. One organization I visited is starting a new process and quality group. Their charter is to write down and standardize all their processes with the goal of achieving CMMi Level 3 in three years. I asked them what the business goals were, and the VP said it is to get to level 3. I was expecting goals like improve productivity, reduce defects, or increase customer satisfaction. I did not get any of them.

Now agilists can suffer from this, too. I have seen them searching for the perfect agile tool, documenting every step of their agile practices, auditing and grading the results. Even the Nokia test can be misused as a metric to setup incentive bonuses.

So what does that line really mean? I think that we are trying to get people talking to each other. Any tool that facilitates that is useful. That is why simple tools like index cards, sticky notes, markers and flipcharts work so well. It encourages interactions between team members. One company decided that the best training to bring in was not TDD or Scrum training but collaboration training. By teaching ScrumMasters and Product Owners how to facilitate meetings, how to use different techniques and tools to reach consensus, and to work through conflict the leaders at this company knew they were living up to that first line – collaboration and talking over standards and compliance; “Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools.”