Thursday, March 16, 2017

are you the next FA (4)?

It should have occurred to me much earlier to put it like this: what an FA really is ... it's the Product Owner in SCRUM ... bridges the gap between the technical and business worlds, OWNs stuff, takes DECISIONS!

And I am telling you: It has never ever been easier than today to take decisions in software!

And here is why:

1. We are encouraged to take risks. Risks may bring in failure. Goto line 2.

2. We are taught that failure is part of the game.

3. We are taught to embrace change, change brings in risks. Go to line 1.

4. Agile practices tell us that upfront planning is not the thing to do. Without complete upfront planning, risks are higher. Goto line 1.

5. There is so much complexity, so many unknowns, so much competition that getting it wrong will not be a surprise.

6. There is this notion of a throwaway prototype. In case your feature fails, declare it was a throwaway protoype.

7. There are so many other smart boys in the industry that simply could not figure it out!

8. Management continuously pushes us to innovate. Innovation leads to uncertainty, uncertainty leads to risk, goto line 1.

9. If you are working in an enterprise, high chances that you are part of a feature team. As opposed to component teams, features teams do not specialize in certain product areas but instead are mobile and take tasks in multiple areas of the product. This implies they do not own stuff, the ownership is collective. This implies collective risk taking. Thus collective blaming. But since management can not afford to send an entire team home ... you see my point.

So step up into this role. You'll have visibility, you'll be admired, you'll get your pay raise. Just be armed with the knowledge above for the 1:1 with your boss when you mess it up.

Take decisions. Or somebody else will. You're definitely smarter than somebody else!