Is your team ever surprised by how long things take? Do you hear things such as:
- Team members say, “I've been waiting for code review for more than 2 days.” (See Measure Cycle Time, Not Velocity to see the various durations for solo, cooperative, and collaborative work. Cycle time is a team-based measure of feedback loop duration.)
- We thought we had the right idea, but when we finally integrated the code out of our sandbox into the main trunk, we realized we needed to change the design. The main product had moved on, and we had not. Too many teams still do not use continuous integration. The longer a team waits to integrate, the more likely they are to build a maximum, “complete” feature instead of the minimum running tested feature. (See Consider Minimum Product Options with Minimum Outcomes.)
- We gave the customer what they asked for. It's not what they now need. (Does the team have access to all of the customer, buyer, or user people to validate product features? Customers almost never know what they want until they see it.)
Teams can manage all of these problems if they commit to a weekly demo of their progress.
Demos Create a Forcing Function for Shorter Feedback Loops
Imagine your team wants to commit to a weekly demo every Wednesday at noon. That weekly commitment can create the forcing function for shorter feedback loops in these ways:
- Continuous integration of smaller chunks of value. That supports the entire project or program to stay together in the overall design. The smaller chunk means everyone can evaluate the value of this specific feature or story. (The minimum options ideas.)
- Reduced wait time for code review. (And possibly more collaboration instead of cooperation.)
- Reduced WIP and reduced cycle time. (See Flow Metrics and Why They Matter to Teams and Managers.)
Then, the weekly demo offers shorter feedback loops to prove and disprove which features matter.
If weekly demos seem impossible, I've got you covered:
- Read Project Lifecycles: How to Reduce Risks, Release Successful Products, and Increase Agility to see what your team is really doing and how to instill agility, regardless of your lifecycle.
- Is your team trying to use an agile approach? If so, read Create Your Successful Agile Project: Collaborate, Measure, Estimate, Deliver
- If you want to build the right product and learn early, read Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management.
Demos are every team's friend. They help expose team and product issues early, especially the issue of proving or disproving the value of each feature in a product.
Remember, projects exist to create valuable outcomes for customers. That's why short feedback loops are so valuable. The faster these customers can see the team's interim outcomes, the faster the team can prove or disprove any specific feature and its value.