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April 13, 2016
Those who know me well know that I am obsessed with Alexander Hamilton. He’s the founding father you didn’t learn about in US History, mostly because he never became President. You probably know he was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr, you might even recognize him as the dude currently gracing your ten-dollar bill, but you probably don’t know that he was an orphan, an immigrant, and the guy who single-handedly created America’s financial system. (You should also thank him for the Constitution’s ratification – he wrote 51 of the 85 essays that make up the Federalist Papers.)
My obsession with Alexander Hamilton has taught me a number of things – about myself, about my work, and about how to simultaneously serve with humility and fight for what you believe in. More surprising, though, he’s also taught me something about embracing the principles of Agile software development.
“A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.”
Think about that for a minute. It seems to run contrary to everything you were taught in school, doesn’t it? Making a mistake is bad enough, but making the same mistake twice, that’s unforgivable! We think of a mistake as the opposite of a success. We’re wrong.
Our software development delivery process at OST is based on the Agile Manifesto (www.agilemanifesto.org). The Agile Manifesto, and Agile software development in general exposes to us a core concept that iteration is a key to success. Responding to change wins out over following a plan every time.
In software development, this makes sense. Try something. If it doesn’t work, try something else. Do something. If it doesn’t match the user’s expectations, learn from it and do something else. Build something. If it doesn’t satisfy all of your needs, build more. This is how we do what we do. We start somewhere, and then we iterate. We test out ideas and approaches. We validate concepts and database constructs. We build, tear down, and build again. We iterate, iterate, iterate; each generation an improvement on the last.
It’s great! It’s a process that makes great solutions, and a framework that sets projects up to continually improve. At its core, continuous improvement requires that you have room to improve; embraces the notion that there is always opportunity to improve.
In life, though, that’s a hard concept to wrap our heads around. We don’t provide ourselves with a lot of grace to make mistakes. We tend not to look fondly on things that need improvement. And our lexicon is full of really awful words that we toss around at ourselves (and others) when things don’t go as well as we hoped. You failed. You blew it. You screwed up. You made a mess of things. You got it all wrong. You lost sight of the big picture. They’re terrible, soul-crushing words. Defeat. Collapse. Crash. Bomb. Die. They’re all words and phrases we employ to remind ourselves just how awful it is to fail.
Enough already!
Here’s what Alexander Hamilton taught me. It’s not awful to make a mistake. It’s essential. Let me say that again – it’s that important.
Failure is required for success.
It’s a foundational principle in practical Agile software development, and a foundational principle in life.
Fail. Make mistakes.
Then learn from them.
