Agile: It's Not About Code. It's About Business.

Hi this is Gary Straughan

Welcome to Development That Pays.

As a Software Engineer, I love to write good quality code.

But as a former Marketing Manager, I know that there are things that are far more important.

Today I want to share with you one of my fundamental beliefs about PROFITABLE software development.

This is the tale of

two walls

and two ladders.

The ladder on the left is

Well-designed.

Well-made.

It’s beautifully piece of engineering.

The ladder on the right is

much more basic.

it’s nothing more than a few bits of wood nailed together.

Which of the two ladders is better?

Clearly, the one on the left.

HOWEVER...

It’s important to realise that the key VALUE of a ladder...

is not what it IS

but rather what it DOES.

What a ladder DOES is get us from one level to another.

In this case, from point A to point B.

Which of the two ladders is better?

The ladder on the left is a better LADDER.

But both ladders serve roughly the same PURPOSE:

Both ladders get us from point A to point B.

Let’s take this one step further.

Notice that each ladder takes us to a DIFFERENT point B.

From the evidence in front of us,

“point B” on the left looks very much like

“point B” on the right.

What we’re here missing is the BIGGER PICTURE.

So let’s take a look at a “bigger picture”.

That changes everything.

The beautifully-constructed ladder turns out to be

an expensive shortcut

to certain death!

The rough-and-ready home-made ladder

turns out to be a cost-effective shortcut to

untold riches.

Which of the two ladders is better?

The well-designed, well-constructed ladder is still a better LADDER

… but the home-made ladder has provided us with far more VALUE.

What’s the moral of this story?

it’s that code - just like a ladder - is a MEANS TO AN END.

It can be elegant. It can be well-crafted.

But these things count for nothing…

... if the code doesn’t achieve a real business goal.

Picking the right “wall” is more important than building the perfect “ladder”.

Put it another way:

It’s more important to build the right thing than to build the thing right.

Of course, “picking the right thing” is easier said than done.

We’ll be taking at how to do that in future episodes.

Talk to you next time.