[prod.fyi] Service is Noble - Responding to Empowered Agile
Service is Noble:
Responding to Empowered Agile, a respected agile practitioner points out that “‘service’ is a bit of a loaded term. He’s using it in a negative sense… and he prefers empowered agile teams with a product mindset”.
That’s a fair criticism - reading the article back it looks like I’ve cast “Service Agile” as a villain against our hero “Product Agile”.
What I really think is that you should use the right tool for the job. I’m a big Simon Wardley fan, so to quote from his Doctrine; “use appropriate methods”. If you are an agency, or if you’re not required to innovate and your requirements are stable, then Service Agile might be just what you need.
Late or Early?
John Cutler tweeted last week “Among their peer group many “late adopters” are actually “early adopters”. On some level they want to adopt at the last responsible moment.”
Drawing that line on adoption is a key skill for tech leaders. Too late and you’re playing catch-up and your top talent has already left to work somewhere more interesting. Too early and you’re firefighting teething troubles in production or just riding out a very short journey towards premature obsolescence.
Simon Wardley’s Doctrine suggests a “bias towards the new (be curious, take appropriate risks)”. That rings true - how can you be innovating if you’re not curious about new things? But you’ve still got to decide when it is appropriate to take that risk on the new tech or practice.
It’s definitely no later than that last responsible moment, but also not earlier than the first.
- James Browne, prod.fyi
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