2019/08/27

Focus

I suspect most of us working in IT today use agile methodologies such as Kanban, Scrum and Safe. We also strive to keep up to date with the latest developments in languages, libraries, patterns, architectures etc.

All of this is with the intent of improving the delivery speed, quality, efficiency, maintainability and the cost effectiveness of the systems we build - oh, and whilst improving our CVs at the same time.

Care though is needed to ensure we don’t get distracted by these tools from delivering the solutions they were employed for. This often isn’t through any specific fault with the methods and tools themselves but how we set about using them. 

There can often be a blinkered tendency to maniacally focus on the tools and methods themselves and in doing so fail to deliver most effectively on actual requirements and customer needs. If all you have is a hammer then everything looks like a nail.

Worse still, the job can become about servicing the tools used to do the work rather than the product of the work itself.

Furthermore these tools are often barely distinguishable from each other and for most use cases it doesn’t much matter if you use one or another; Java or .NET, AWS or GCP, Scrum or Kanban. Use what works for your team and be the master of tools, not a slave to them.

The product of your creativity is that which you build, value is derived from how your customers use the product.

Focus on the product and value it gives to your customers. Produce working solutions first and foremost - functionally and non-functionally - as efficiently as can be.

Over time we learn new methods and tools that improve delivery and optimise value for the customer but we need always be mindful that tools and methods are only a means to an end and not an end in themselves.


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