Size Matters
There’s a common question that’s asked when there’s an event I’m speaking at. The question is “will this work for large development groups” or some variation on that phrase. The question is an interesting one because I almost always reply with “Of course it does”. The notion of TDD MUST scale, right? Right?!
Over the years, I’ve come to believe my own hype, lies and hyperbole. I’ve come to say wonderful things are possible no matter what your scenario is. That is simply not true. I’ve come to the conclusion that additional indirection clouds communication and hierarchy suppresses the natural instinct to innovate. I’m currently at a large corporate client that has recently embraced Agile. They’ve hired the right people, they’ve taken the training and they’ve made had courage from the top to the bottom and anything that gets in the way of open communication is brought up as an issue and removed. This team is top notch and they get it. They’ve sacrificed broken culture and traded it for communication, transparency and craftsmanship. And it’s working. That project is one of the best I’ve been on and it’s a testament to their courage.
So, the issue is not about “size”. And the fact that it’s asked is actually a red herring that the asker believes in. Agile, Craftsmanship, XP, Scrum, none of it has anything to do with size. the real question they are asking is “My company is stuck culturally. How do I have this culture shift take place at my company?” Here’s my official answer:
You have a problem and you need help. Changing culture is nearly impossible and when there is not a fit between you and your employer then the real question is “Do I change where I work or simply change where I work.” This is a personal question to be answered by the individual but in my experience… Leave.
You’ve got a small window of influence before you’re a lifer. You’ve got a small window in which your passion and desire to grow can be mitigated by the lack of responsibility. If you’ve tried to make change in your culture and it’s not happening then the problem is you.
When I was laid off from Telligent, I was not worried. I really enjoyed the folks that I was working with but I was having increasing doubts about the platform that they target (Microsoft .NET) I was also not a fan of the remote based culture that they were accustomed to working in. When I joined there were no unit tests, only a smattering of integration and functional tests that had been left by the way side. They did not pair and had a loose “run-n-gun” attitude around developing software. Just so that we’re clear: NONE OF THIS IS BAD, it’s simply not how I like to do things. I forced the issues of XP like Pairing and TDD and I had some influence but most of my struggle was around the process of writing software and NOT actually writing software. While I’m not sure why my name was the only one from the product team to be selected for RIF, if I had to venture a guess… my heart was not in it anymore and it showed. It was the right choice for them and the right choice for me.
Which brings me to the point. The point is that while you can teach and old dog new tricks, you can’t teach an entire kennel of old dogs at once and if you don’t get some help in the form of EVERYONE WHO WORKS THERE then you’re destined to have some value-less half assed version of what ever it is that you wanted to do.
Jesus, Mental Health and now, corporate cultural change, are for those who want to help themselves. If they are not ready for that change and you are or you have already made the change then you have to ask if that’s the right opportunity for you. For me, I’d rather be small, fast and happy than rule the world.
