The Real MVP

When it comes to automating processes, there are plenty of ways to doom your project. One mistake that I've made quite a few times is overestimating the maturity of the existing process. I've touched on this a bit in previous articles so just consider this an optimization or v2.

One of the quotes that has stuck with me for a decade or so is "a fool with a tool is still a fool." My Google-fu indicates that this should be attributed to Grady Booch, but I stumbled upon it in a handbook on Lean Six Sigma I received from a colleague back in the early aughts. As a technologist, I haven't always had the best deskside manner, so I have uttered these words to a potential business partner on more than one occasion.

Awkward office interactions aside, the value of really digging into your process before attempting to automate it cannot be overstated. Even facilitating a documentation, prototyping, or brainstorming session to think through pre-project process improvements can provide significant benefits.

During a thankfully-rare incident of unstructured pontificating postulation in response to an inquiry about the delivery of an MVP (minimum viable product) and responded with "I think the Real MVP should be a Minimally Variable Process." To have any hope of reaching a near-term productive outcome, we must first optimize the process before automating it.