Not everything is a nail: choosing the right tools
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Have you experienced the frustration of failure when trying to introduce new tools, use bad software, work around old habits, engage with the latest new technique for retrospectives? If you're fed up with new tool mania then try a different start point - consider your goals and problems instead.
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Not everything is a nail: choosing the right tools
- 1. Not everything is a nail Choosing, evaluating, and integrating the right tools for the way you work Shahina Patel: @shhh_hina at #DC17 #DeliverConf 25th January 2017
- 2. Enjoys hands on learning and doing A big fan of community events and sharing experiences On Twitter: @shhh_hina If you want to visit a website: shahinapatel.com Shahina Patel
- 4. This workshop We will be… Getting to know ourselves better because Knowing yourself helps you work out what you need and what suits you Learn how to identify the need for a tool and how to assess their suitability We will not be… Telling each other that JIRA is the ideal bug tracker Finding a way to shoehorn a suite of tools into everything we do Looking for silver bullets, or golden hammers....
- 5. The wrong tool for the job… causes face-melting, tear-inducing frustration in even a fully grown PM
- 6. We’re not choosing tools, we’re choosing goals.
- 7. “Would you tell me, please, where I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where-” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. “- so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation. “Oh you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if only you walk long enough.”
- 8. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom -Tupac Shakur (Just kidding, it was Aristotle)
- 9. Your ‘Work Management’ Persona
- 10. Disclaimer: THESE PERSONAS MAY NOT BE AN EXACT SCIENCE...
- 11. ..but see if you can recognise your style of work It’s important to appreciate that we have different communication styles We engage with technology, processes and tools in different ways So what works for you, might not work for someone else! If you know what your strengths and weaknesses are, you can better align yourself with a solution that suits your particular preferences This is the same for teams, too
- 12. The Team Captain The Project Manager’s Project Manager The Lion Tamer Understands the tech Able to soothe the savage stakeholder Knows every deadline and deliverable by heartWilling and able to pitch in Always on point with reporting Makes connections across teams and across levels Superhuman efficiency Can explain complex ideas simply Not always patient with people who won’t engage with the technology More interested in doing the work than reporting on the work “Efficient and succinct” can come across as brusque Great empathy for end users Less people-focused, more project-focused Less interested in the specifics of the tech Has been known to forget the odd detail
- 13. The right tools will... Enhance your strengths and talents Help you achieve your goals Make up for your weaknesses, give you more time to focus on the parts of the job you love
- 14. Building your toolkit: the assessment Identify your goal/requirement Select the right tool for that requirement Evaluate its effectiveness Integrate it into your practice
- 15. Identify your goal Are you solving the right problem? What are you trying to make better? How could you spend more time doing the things you love and less time doing the things you hate?
- 16. The ‘slow elevator’ problem pt.i from https://signalvnoise.com/posts/1244-defining-the-problem-of-elevator-waiting-times: The problem: The lift in a building is too slow, or so the residents complain. The solution? Make the lift faster How? Buy and install a new motor for the lift But is that the only solution? It’s an expensive one! What if there’s a different way to look at the problem?
- 17. The ‘slow elevator’ problem pt.ii The problem: The wait for the lift feels too long The solution? Give people something to occupy their time with How? Install mirrors in the lobby and lift area
- 18. Learning from lifts (or elevators) Re-framing a problem gives you a different solution space It doesn’t solve the problem (in this case, the lift is still slow!), but instead helps you consider if there’s a different/better problem to solve So ask yourself: are you really getting to the root of the problem? And if not then don’t skip this step! Make it your starting point. Problems help to define goals. Remember to choose goals, not tools.
- 19. The # Whys The 5 Whys techniques can help you get to the root of a problem quickly Start with your problem and ask “Why is it occurring?” If it’s a need, ask “Why do we have this need?” Keep asking until you have a counter-measure for the problem (origin: Toyota http://www.toyota-global.com/company/toyota_traditions/quality/mar_apr_2006.html )
- 20. Select the right tool Identify your parameters Ask for ideas Do you already have something you can re-purpose?
- 22. These are all parameters that Stephen will consider when choosing an issues tracker. He’s also considering re-purposing what he already has by using: Google form + JIRA + manpower
- 23. Make an evaluation plan What are your evaluation criteria? What is the benchmark for improvement? Your minimum viable improvement? What’s your evaluation period? Will you have an evaluation team?
- 24. Integrate your new tool What’s your rollout strategy? What’s your maintenance strategy? What’s your review strategy?
- 26. Integrating tools at an organisation level Will you have an evaluation team? Consider all the users Have you considered all the parameters around integration? Use the plan as an evolving template Use the plan each time Always have an escape plan
- 27. What’s going into your toolkit?
- 28. Tools checklist Does it match my overall objectives or goals and purpose for finding a tool? Have I been inclusive of all stakeholders and users? Power up: can this tool be adapted to suit my purpose better? Will my evaluation plan capture the success and effectiveness of the new tool?
- 29. Get to know your goals
- 30. Choose your tools wisely
- 31. Take care of those tools
- 32. And they will take care of you.
- 33. Thanks for staying ‘til the end! Do you have any questions? Get in touch! Shahina Patel | Twitter: @shhh_hina | Website: www.shahinapatel.com
Editor's Notes
- So I said we were going to complete a few exercises and this is the first one. Let me read out this quote: "knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom" Knowing yourself is the beginning of this session because there are some logical steps to go through before selecting the right tool. First one - get to know yourself! What are you like? What do you like? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Then based on that we can consider what are my needs Then put the two together - what am I like and what is my need in order to determine: what tool will suit me best and solve my problem? And then once you can identify what tool will suit your need you can build an evaluation plan to help you determine the effectiveness of the tool and integrate into your practice.
- Coming up you’re going to see lots of images and ideas and all of them correspond to one a colour, either blue, red or yellow. When you see an image or idea that you relate to or that speaks to you some way, grab a coloured sticker and stick it down somewhere. Don’t think too hard. Grab and go. Ready?
- So this isn't grounded in science and probably only slightly more accurate than astrology! This relates to the idea that people have different communication styles; analytical, intuitive, functional, personal. One of the things that separates those four styles is how you might communications with emotions over data. “This feel good, vs. this is 50% better sales”. Additionally how you might communicate in a linear way or in a freeform way. “A then B then C vs skip to Z” We came up with this because people have a tendency to do one of three things - the first is to concentrate on what people say, the literal meaning of the words they're saying. The second is the intention behind those words. The third type of person may instead focus on the feelings of the person saying the words.
- Let’s go back to Stephen for a moment. He was asking about issue trackers.
- Lots of tools work better if other people use them, too - are you going to try to get your colleagues involved? How will you do that? Do you have a plan to regularly evaluate if your tool is continuing to work for you? If it has a recurring cost, that gives you a built-in review point, but even free tools may not work with your ever-evolving practice forever
- Just as people have different communication styles, so do organisations. This is more closely linked to culture though. At the end of this it’s fifty five minutes KB - When considering the right tools for your personal practice, it’s important to think about your personality and how a new tool will support or enhance your skills and talents. It’s the same for organisations. Since we’re speaking to you as individuals today, rather than as organisations, we’ve focused on personal tools. However, almost all of what we discussed applies to organisations, as well. In fact, a methodical approach to selecting and integrating tools becomes more and more important as more people are affected - choosing a new notebook on a whim probably won’t bring your career to a halt, but choosing the wrong methodology, or the wrong framework, or an inappropriate and expensive piece of software for an organisation can cause serious damage.
- Remember: garbage in, garbage out.