Francesco Cirillo
"Recently, I've mentored several teams and it always played out the same way: they diligently applied mainstream processes, tools, and practices - Agile, Jira, Continuous Delivery, you name it - yet deadlines kept slipping and 'never-ending user stories' became the norm. Even worse, the blame game was in full swing: the product team pointed fingers at the tech team, the tech team retaliated, and the management team blamed everyone.
It wasn't about the tools or processes they were using. It was the hidden monster - software complexity. Everyone overlooked the task of reducing the complexity of both the software system and the product's value system. As complexity spiraled, confusion and frustration set in among the product and software developers, leading to delusions: "Do we already have this feature?" the Product Developers would ask. "Our software is fine, change is our only problem," the developers would insist. All the while, the beast of complexity grew as they were mired in their Jira to-do lists, pointless remote meetings, and 'clean' silos driven code duplications.
They were so embroiled in the day-to-day grind that they lost sight of the big picture: dealing with change and fostering growth of their software and product value structure by curbing its complexity.
This was the spark for my programme. The goal for your team shouldn't be just to latch onto every new process, practice, or tool. It should be about continually reducing the complexity of your software system. And to achieve that, your team needs a self-tailored blend of process, tools, and practices that work for them, not just by the book. By doing this, you can adapt to changes and let your software grow sustainably, without fear, stress, waste, or delusions. And that is the beating heart behind my programme."
