Lifecycles of lifecycles; seasons of systems

When we discuss systems, there’s often an implicit understanding that systems are meant to be designed, then perfected, then ritualized. You get them to a good place and leave them be, so you can set that on relative autopilot and spend your decisionmaking energies elsewhere. Let the humans run the algorithm and be done with it.

Even so, many (most?) of the systems we work with every day that feel either broken, or like they were poorly designed in the first place.

What gives?

The inputs changed. Your team got more senior. The company got bigger. The folks building stuff are further from the folks selling stuff.

It’s a different season for your system. And it’d be helpful if we could acknowledge these seasons from the start, and to simply expect them to need to change with the company climate.

What’s this look like?

An example for the software folks: Scrum provides a ton of structure and scaffolding. It’s great for helping juniors and mid-level builders gel as a team and get the sensation (and ideally the reality) of delivering, and it gives management the sensation (and ideally the reality) of fast feedback and involvement. It’s also a lot of overhead: tons of meetings and ceremonies and tracking and process and discussion about the meetings and the ceremonies and the tracking and the processes.

I love using Scrum for helping teams repair themselves and getting back on track. I find it super heavy for teams that are intact and delivering.

When the team grows, it can grow past Scrum and be ready for something a little lighter, with more flexibility. Maybe it’s Kanban. Maybe it’s small-a agile. Maybe it’s Shape Up¹.

But then after some time, things change again. The build team has a lot of turnover and needs to gel again. Product loses some expertise and is having difficulty shaping work.

Bring it home

What’s shifted in the feel of your systems since the last season, the last quarter? Do some feel better, or newly uncomfortable, constraining or unsupportive? All of your systems will have to change with time. Knowing that ahead of time lets you prepare and accept, instead of being surprised when one fails entirely.