I can't say how many times I have heard software practitioners talk about the Triple Constraints of Scope, Time/Schedule, and Cost as a triangle and suggest mental games of adjusting one and fixing the other two. Often you see quality as a fourth constraint that is dependent on the other three, which is very true.
In my traditional project experience, stakeholders try to fix all three constraints – dictatorially fix them. This inevitably leaves quality as the only variable. And as teams flex on quality, the trade-offs are often hidden from the business until after the software is deployed.
From an agile perspective, we want to turn this pyramid on its side. We want to fix cost with a relatively stable and well-defined team dynamic. We want to fix time/schedule by releasing in well-defined and measured time-boxes or sprints. We also want to fix quality in that we don't short-shrift it in our efforts to deliver quickly. So what does that truly leave as a variable? Clearly scope!
Agile project managers are continuously focusing on two key dynamics:
- Maintaining a quality focus with their team so that no feature leaves the line as undone or with known defects
- Passionately varying scope with their business partners – while always looking to deliver a high value and minimal marketable feature
It's holding to this modification in the triangle that differentiates agile projects and agile project managers. Let's explore some of the aspects of quality in more detail so that you can understand and refine the role the agile project manager fills in team quality activity and decision-making.
What Do I Mean by Quality?
First of all, it's not simply testing. You don't test in quality, you build it in. Quality and testing practitioners have been telling us that for many years. We simply haven't been listening. So part of the focus is on testing practices – applying different approaches in context and doing plenty of risk-based testing with the entire team and the customer fully engaged in the decision-making around what to test, when and how much.
I could go on forever explaining some of the many test techniques that great agile testers leverage while performing testing. But there are some other practices, outside of testing, that truly influence the teams' thinking when to come to quality work. The following four come to mind as important practices for the agile team and project manager.
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