Software and the Art of Soupmaking

As a keen amateur cook as well as a technologist, it has taken me a lot of time to understand the importance of how the ingredients of both activities are blended and introduced. Here’s my thoughts on why it matters, told through an old folk tale.

Introduction

Having been in the consultancy business for nearly a quarter of a century, I’ve seen on multiple occasions people being somewhat sceptical of a proposition. I mean, many clients already have people, capability, experience and knowledge. Is the proposition just a smokescreen around “we will give you more of the same”?. I believe it shouldn’t be. Brooks’ law suggests more isn’t always better - "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later". So what is it that a good proposition/plan adds to a product delivery?

The Parable of the Stone Soup

I’m sure we’ve all heard the parable of stone soup, an old Eastern European folk tale where some hungry travellers visit a village and “trick” the villagers into adding their disparate ingredients into a pot with a “magical soup stone” to make a delicious meal for all.

Rather obviously, the primary lesson from the tale is one of sharing resources, that by coming together, we can all profit, in this case the entire village and its visitors during hard times. Just like in software, if we don’t find a harmonious way to take our respective ingredients we’ll have a worse experience, and in some cases go hungry.?

But, in a bit of a shower thought moment, the hidden meaning (at least what I inferred) was that items were added in order, and maybe that matters. I remember a video by the late, great chef Paul Prudhomme where he’s adding commonplace ingredients to create a great Creole dish (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5XXU47q9js if you’re interested). The ingredients were simple, but how he layered them with purpose made the difference. He added onions at three different stages of cooking for the purpose of layering, which was interesting to me. My better half recently made me the most delicious lasagna I’d had in my life. Were the ingredients magically any different from what I’d use? No, but the preparation and layering were.

Software is no different, from 100 feet away a project that’s running well with high-performing teams looks little different from one that’s the opposite (aside from all the flapping you’ll see). How and when you blend the ingredients, in the correct ratios, it’s the primary key.

So, the titular stone, on casual inspection is a con, on further inspection is a ruse to get people collaborating, but in my opinion, is ultimately expertise on how to marshall that collaboration. That stone then isn’t just a stone, it’s a diamond. It brings clarity, purpose and optimal results.

Introducing your Ingredients

If we just say, add all your Product and Design in the first bit, then all your Engineering, boil for eight months and taste. Then panic when you realise it doesn’t come together. That sounds a lot like waterfall to me. Back to the onions (which for this purpose could be engineering), they’re added in over several stages, not all at once. Taste and season as you build those layers. The inspect and adapt elements of agile are your tasting and further seasoning. A fixed team over X months isn’t the whole picture, I always like to create a two-dimensional team view, showing them grow and change over time. A robust Discovery will really help you put the nuance into that two-dimensional model, and skipping that step is risky. A good Discovery is your recipe and mise en place.

Conclusion

A well crafted proposition shouldn’t, in my opinion, be thought of as snake oil to sell the same thing people already have. If you know what to add to the pot and when, it’s the difference between success and failure. But I’m not sure everybody makes these considerations when shaping a project, and I think it’s where we add value. We spend a lot of our energy thinking about not only what to put in, but what to leave out, or to add in later. This is how we make a difference, by being the people who add that sacred stone that means we can all eat, and that the delivered product is one that people actually want to use.