Commitment… Isn’t as easy as it seems…

If you look at the statistical data on marriage success/failure rates, this statement is already widely known… But I am not even going to touch that one with a ten-foot-pole…

Commitment is a strong word… sometimes folks equate it with Perfection... I think that is a wrong way to look at things, personally – and professionally. 

 

Scrum has three defining elements for Retrospectives:

1. What did we do well

2. What did we do not so well

3. How can we improve

These three elements should speak for themselves, they should open up an understanding of “commitment”…  I am not sure they usually do.

If this were, again, compared to marriage, consider this “counseling”, not necessarily fulfillment of either or all parties involved.  It is about “learning” to be better.  It is about “learning” that failure to meet the “commitment” is really a “teacher” of how to become better, personally – and as a team.

All of the team – Development, Testing, Business Analysts, Etc. can “commit” to delivering items by such-and-such date… but the great “what-ifs” of humanity will generally show up, Murphy's_law  is well-known for a reason, and prevent some, if not all, of the aspects of the team from actually delivering.

So, perhaps, the “meaning” of the word, in regards to Agile/Scrum should be more clearly defined.  Much is talked about in regards to “defining Done”, but I find little to none on the term “committed”, I think (based on personal biases and the psychology courses I have taken) that this subject is a bit taboo – again due to personal relationship experiences that people have.

It seems to me that the founders of these “general process guidelines” (I say this in quotes because there ARE NO BEST PRACTICES, unless they are best for your own circumstances),  expected there to be continuous issues, changes, failures, successes, tweaking, etc. 

The third question can be left out easily if a person or team feels like a success or a failure… either/or would distort the results of even thinking about question 3.  If I feel we did all well, will I think of what can be improved?  If I think all did not go well, will I think of what can be improved?  Or would I be basking in glory or wilting in shame from my personal thoughts... Feelings without knowledge can distort thinking... 

I think, prior to Retrospective, each individual needs to try to think about the questions internally prior to externally.  Instead of asking in the “we” sense, ask yourself first.  Then think about the team, and when you do, try to see if there were any “impediments” they encountered, whether as individuals or as a team.

Regardless of how much we improve our processes, they will always need even more improvement.  Regardless of what we seriously desire to commit to, there will always be good old Murphy showing us his laws…

Respond to Change…

Understand the goal…

Do your best, individually, to meet that goal…

Accept failure as a teacher, not a punishment…

Learn from both success and failure…

Carry on bringing with you what you have gained…

Commitment is a noun, what you do with it – that is the verb….

Remember that perfect things are actually Done, they have no need to be re-visited again...