Understanding Developer-Driven Schedules

In Beyond Agile, effective scheduling is not just about setting dates; it’s about creating a balance that aligns with the natural flow of development cycles.

This scientific approach, "balance and serialize," is crucial for organizing schedules at any stage or size.

Schedules Come From Developers, Not At Them

Traditional project management often imposes schedules on developers. They might ask an engineer "how long?" or "how hard?" but these questions have no answer because there is not relationship between that which we can see or review and the underlying complexity of such a thing.

There’s no relationship between visible artifacts and underlying complexity in software. Google’s interface is a text-field and search button, but the software behind that is immensely complex.

We flip this paradigm.

Our scheduling process is driven by developers, ensuring everyone knows their part and when they need to step up. This fosters a sense of ownership and responsibility, crucial for meeting deadlines.

Phases are like the seasons. Each phase—Design, Develop, Debug, and Deploy—ushers in natural changes in behavior and activity, just like seasons of the year.

This naturally repeating cycle provides a predictable framework, allowing us to harness the energy of each phase to move forward effectively. This recognizes and relies upon the real, natural routines of expert engineers.

Observing Natural Behaviors

One of the key insights from our approach is tracking progress through observation rather than guessing. You don't have to ask, you can see.

By closely monitoring the natural behaviors of engineers and comparing them to expected phases or the 50% schedule mark, we can accurately gauge progress.

This method relies on a few critical markers and indicators, eliminating the need for speculative assessments.

Balance First

Focus on major architectural issues and separate simple logical flaws from complex design problems. This helps in prioritizing and efficiently addressing issues.

In the "Beyond Agile" methodology, balancing each phase of the software cycle is crucial. The goal is to manage both quality and progress, ensuring that neither is sacrificed. Each phase should address a handful of major architectural issues, either by tackling previously identified "bug-makers" or by developing new features that require careful design consideration.

By maintaining this balance, we create a flexible schedule that can adapt to internal and external pressures without disrupting the overall cycle. This approach not only improves efficiency but also enhances the reliability and predictability of the software development process.

Serialize Second

Visualize the balanced values as a serial schedule that can contract and expand without losing phase integrity. This method helps in adapting to internal or external pressures smoothly.

This cycle based scheduling allows for dynamic adjustments, much like an accordion. You can compress and expand the schedule without disrupting the release integrity.

By adding or removing days and tweaking schedules, we can expand and contract timelines as needed to hit a release goal or date. This flexibility also ensures we can adapt to real-time changes without compromising release integrity.

Refining Processes with Continuous Improvement

Our scheduling cycle isn't a sprint to a goalpost but a continuous journey, akin to a train moving down a track. Coaches and managers use this cycle to refine and improve processes continually. This iterative approach ensures that we are always moving forward, steadily enhancing our efficiency and effectiveness.

By adopting these principles, we create a natural, intuitive scheduling process that aligns with the real-world practices of expert engineers. This method not only improves productivity but also fosters a collaborative and responsive work environment.

Using these principles, we create a natural, intuitive scheduling process that aligns with the real-world practices of expert engineers. This method improves productivity and fosters a collaborative, responsive work environment. This is what makes some development groups take off and —Go Beyond.