Balanced Development
Great software is not made by great developers (though that always helps). We cannot take the credit when everything works well, and we cannot take the blame when things fail - there is a significant difference between blame and responsibility, the former is a way to assign fault and the latter a way to accept fault. Great software is made by well planned execution from all teams involved including development, testing, and others. In order to keep things working going forward, a system of checks and balances must be in place between two specific entities, project management and product development.
In recent events, we have seen what such a system means when executed correctly. No power is greater than another, and each plays a part. At its worst things come to a stall (we have seen that already). We think this is a bad thing, and yet reality dictates that someone or something steps up and prevents things from getting derailed, thus keeping another entity in “check.” The first step is acknowledging that you have a problem.
As a project manager, we look to meet schedules and deliver products/features to propel the company forward. From listening to customers, reacting to market changes, and sustaining a customer base without cannibalizing another we look to keep product development heading down the right path. Without guidance, development becomes a land of anarchy with everyone fighting for their own just cause, and eventually suffocating one another with madness. We live in the land of work item tracking and may have a black belt in six sigma; we encourage our employees to think of things in terms of what is urgent and important, but only require that work gets done on a meaningful schedule.
Taking a step towards the product development side we see another set of challenges. Project management is clearly the enemy. Arbitrary deadlines, meaning-less defects, legacy systems, inefficient processes, and all of these driven by the overseers who have been around the longest. The decisions of which tool we use to get the job done often comes down to someone on the dark side who is more familiar with a certain tool or process. We are the gate-keepers to a realm of complexity and abstraction that few have the desire to see. Our words are confusing, and worse yet is our attempts to explain what a zebrafish really looks like - it looks like a fish, but maybe you don’t go fishing? We are sometimes unpolished individuals, difficult to take serious at times, and the last people you want interfacing with customers. Our realm is strange, but no one has the ability to navigate it better than we do - arrogant people walk into a foreign country and point out what the natives are doing wrong.
What occurs without a system of checks and balances varies depending on which side crosses the line. When project management crosses the line you see a company where product development wades through seas of technical debt looking for the resources needed to bail them out. We should have brought a paddle, but at least we can state that progress is being made because we aren’t where we were five minutes ago - that is agile after all right? We may never be truly proud of the work we do while the company remains unbalanced, but we are paid well.
When product development crosses the line we see wasted potential as we never truly reach a goal. Plans are quickly brushed aside, deadlines become comical. Eventually something is produced, but that doesn’t mean it will be useful - though it will be technically fascinating. The paddle is on board; we never bothered steering.
It’s important that we work together as one and listen to each other. It is not acceptable to say “they will pad the numbers” or “the deadline doesn’t matter.” When one side feels pain, both sides feel pain. Balance is key, find the middle ground.