Seeking Confidence In Software

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When we look at the Continuous Integration model and the reason it has been so successful, one might think it is because we release more often and our commits are small. One might also think, the boredom of constant releasing is powerful as well. As we examine further, as well, there are times when in reality, even when practicing Continuous Integration, we are asked to stop releasing so often.  We have moments when the rest of the company or when the customer asks for us to not release as often. Why is that? Confidence. Trust. Let's be honest, we break stuff...often. It happens. It's ok. But when we lost trust, we need to gain it back.

Determine The Cause

The first step to Continuous Confidence is the council. Pull in people from every group and department of the company. Don't pull in managers. We can invite them, but we need people who are in the trenches and who know where the pain is. Be productive. Keep the council moving, but council  about why people don't want to release more often. I often ask the question: If all our tests were to pass, can we ship it immediately? When we ask insightful questions that allow us to explore the trepidation of the company and customers, we can finally find how to inspire confidence.

Determine A Plan

The next step is determining a plan. Find the things that will inspire the most Confidence in your releases. Each organization is different. Perhaps the build process is too slow. Maybe the release mechanism is too manual. Perhaps releasing code is too jarring to the customer. Whatever the cause maybe, be honest about what is the most painful, prioritize and move forward.

Rinse And Repeat

Focus on the points established in he first council. Determine a plan for overcoming each pain point. As we finish each point, and focus on raising confidence across the organization and win the customers, we simply repeat the council and planning over and over. By raising the confidence in our product, the customer will become more loyal and ultimately a happy customer, a confident customer.

As we keep going, our roles will change. We will find that traditional software development roles will take on a different meaning and different role. That's ok. That's when software becomes fun again.

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