You Want IT When?

The price of gasoline is changing.  It’s been increasing for quite a few years now.  From an economic standpoint, it’s not very good.   Scientists say the Earth is warming.  Global warming will make the Earth less hospitable to many animals, maybe even to man.   Not all change is good.

Change is a fact of life in the technology industry, and most changes have been wonderful.  The internet is revolutionizing many aspects of our daily lives for the better.  We have cell phones, Blackberries, and iPods that have improved our ability to communicate and enjoy our leisure time.   The gaming industry must change just to remain competitive, and the gaming experience has improved dramatically over a short time.   Change is often good; change is often necessary.

In the practice of software management some seem to see change as only a positive characteristic, but it isn’t always.  The Agile Manifesto values, “Responding to change over following a plan.”   Yes, but should an Agile practitioner always dismiss the plan?  The Principles behind the Agile Manifesto adds further, “Welcome changing requirements, even late in the development.  Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.”  What if the change isn’t good?  Agile is silent about that, giving the impression that all change is good change, but we know that’s untrue.

I got to thinking about the subject of this article when I was importing some pictures into Windows Vista from my camera.  Vista changed the importing features significantly from Windows XP.  I liked the old import features in Windows XP better.  It was simple and functional.  Here’s how Vista’s features contrasts with XP’s features for importing pictures:

• XP gives me the ability to select a subset of the pictures while Vista forces me to import all the pictures. This creates more work for me if I’m to use the Vista importing tool.   Many of the pictures on the camera are for different events.  I normally don’t get the opportunity to import the pictures as soon as I take them, but even if they were of the same event, sometimes I like to give each picture a different name, so some of the pictures will be misnamed if I use the Vista tool.  Consequently, I no longer use the Vista import feature.
  
• XP gives me complete ability to select the folder while Vista creates a subfolder beneath the folder I select with a formulaic name.  This exacerbates the problem outlined above as not only do I need to change the filename, I would have to move them to new folders.  With XP I can repeat the import operation for each group of pictures to import. 

For me these changes to the import feature are a step backward in functionality. Anyone importing photos as I import them will have the same problem of some photos being misnamed and in misnamed folders.  Is all change good?

Let’s look at the Windows Aero features of Windows Vista.  While it looks cool, I never use the Windows Flip 3D.   The glass effect is cool also, but it doesn’t improve my productivity or make the computer more useful.  Some of the Aero features are helpful.  Alt-tab to switch between Windows is better than XP, and the preview display, when you point to a windows taskbar button, is also a helpful improvement.  Some changes are helpful, while other changes are neither helpful, useful, nor bad.

Change has impacts to a project: change may increase the costs to complete the project; change may increase the duration of the project; change may increase both the duration and costs, some change may have neutral impacts: neither good nor bad, and finally, some change may disappoint the customer.   If a project is going to endure a penalty, doesn’t it make sense to assess the value of the change before committing to delivering it?  Regardless if there are no impacts to the project commitments for accepting the change, should a team commit to delivering something without evaluating whether the change is going to realize positive value for the product?  It is for these reasons that traditional software practitioners support Change Control Processes.

Change Control isn’t about preventing change.  It’s about making good decisions about change.  If the change increases the budget, it’s about making sure the company’s financial plans can support the change.  If the change increases the duration, it’s about making sure customer commitments are not impacted adversely by accepting the change.  Finally, if we don’t evaluate the benefit of the change to the customer, we may commit to change that disappoints the customer.  And if a change has negative customer impacts, doesn’t it make sense to attempt to figure that out up front so that money and time can be focused to higher impact features?   Change is often good; change is often necessary, but only when we understand the value and the consequences of change, can we make good decisions about change.

If you liked this essay, you may also like the following related posts:

•  Embrace Change