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Thursday, July 8, 2021

The wrong professionals

Sometimes, I struggle with teams failing to understand the engineers' responsibility in quality: "I have asked the Product Owner whether we should apply Clean Code practices, and she said, she doesn't need it."

This is already not a conversation that should happen.

Here's a little metaphor I like to use:

When my electrician asks me whether they should insulate the wiring, I have the wrong electrician. 

And that has a number of consequences:

  • Professionals do not negotiate the standards of professionalism with their customer. 
  • Customers expect that the professional brings and adheres to professional standards, which is why they get hired. 
  • Customers are not in a position to judge whether a professional standard is applicable in their context, and asking them to do so shifts responsibility to someone who can't bear it. That itself is un-professional.

So, what does that mean for your Agile team?
  • Be as professional as you can, and continuously improve.
  • Do not ask the customer to tell you what "professional" is.
  • Instead, ask them whether your standards of professionalism satisfy their needs.
  • You can't delegate the responsibility for the quality of your work to anyone else.
    The attempt is already un-professional.


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