Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
8.14 More about “Less Visible” Tasks That Require More
Time on Agile Projects
With any role comes a list of responsibilities, and some of those have more
visibility
and are viewed as more important than others. We discussed the
importance of roles and responsibilities earlier in Chapters 5 and 6.
14
Exam-
ples of critical “less visible” tasks that Carl was doing include
monitoring
the
tasks of others on the project, providing
guidance
, and
reprioritizing
tasks as
necessary.
Now here is where the problem comes in:
“Guidance,” “monitoring,” and “reprioritizing” are critical responsibili-
ties, but the results of these critical activities are “less visible” than
missing a schedule deadline with a
tangible product
like the Requirements
Specification or a delivered increment of working code.
“Guidance
”
and “monitoring” are two examples of critical tasks that often
require more time, particularly when first moving in the Agile direction. In
this situation, we are often asking people to take on new responsibilities and
help teammates. This also means people might require more guidance in
assessing their own commitments before they commit to helping others with
additional work.
For example, on Agile projects we might be asking people to interact more
frequently and more closely with customers, as was the case with Al. These
could be external or internal customers. From the internal side it could be a
Software Engineer working more closely with a Systems Engineer.
15
More guidance might be required for handling certain situations that arise
such as when people can make a
decision
on their own and under what cir-
cumstances they should
raise it up
and wait for help from more senior
personnel.
“
Guidance” and “monitoring” unfortunately are critical tasks but they are
“less visible” tasks than those associated with a product or hard milestone
schedule. Therefore, these tasks don't always get the priority and attention
they deserve.
14. Recall from previous discussions that we are reminded of the importance of roles and responsibilities
by GP 2.3 and GP 2.4 of the CMMI model.
15. Refer to the “Diddling in DOORs” story in Chapter 3 for a related example.
