Using Doctrine to Decentralise Decision

Making

Jason Yipjcyip@thoughtworks.com

@jchyiphttp://jchyip.blogspot.com

Why doctrine?

Mark Bonchek and Chris Fussell, “Use Doctrine to Pierce the Fog of Business”, http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/02/use_doctrine_to_pierce_the_f.html

“Strategy doesn't give employees enough guidance to know how to take action, and plans are too rigid to adapt to changing circumstances. In rapidly changing environments, you need fog lights to get closer to the ground.”

"If strategy defines objectives, and plans prescribe behavior, then doctrine guides decisions."

What is doctrine?

“Fundamental principles by which the military forces guide their actions in support of objectives. It is authoritative but requires judgment in application.”

NATO

Doctrine allows us to safely decentralise decision-making by having consistent decision logic.

What is Agile doctrine?

What are fundamental principles by which Agile practitioners guide their actions and decisions in support of objectives... that are authoritative but require judgment in application?

Split up into small groups

Come up with at most 5 principles for Agile doctrineWords and pictures

Apply to test scenariosAll comments / decisions must be guided by doctrine

Agile doctrine test scenarios

“We’ve prepared a RFP that details the solution and when and what process deliverables are required.”

“We're working on a large program with a lot of different teams. We plan to agree on all the interfaces up front in an interface document, and then build independently, before doing integration testing at the end.”

“Our meetings are too much overhead so we should increase the length of our iterations.”

“We want to implement [insert massive change program] using Agile”