Closing The Feedback Loop

Submitters: Ola Ellnestam & Daniel Brolund

Abstract:

Continuous integration, Planning game, Daily stand-ups and Retrospectives are all examples of practices which are common when developing software. They will provide you with important information upon which you can reflect and then act.

Correct and timely feedback on different time scales is what makes software development efforts succeed repeatedly. That is a mathematical fact. There is also a soft side to these hard facts that adds a dimension of potential. People.

When people who are part of a process are shielded from the results of their work, they will fail at whatever they are doing. Many software development efforts are set-up for failure due to improper or absent feedback, or the inability to incorporate relevant feedback in the process.

We want to change that. We want to show how and why feedback unleashes the potential of the people in your team and organization.

This talk will give you a bundle of practices that close your feedback loops, technically and socially. Above all, the talk will make you feedback aware to guide you when developing new context-specific practices that are aligned with science, all with a potential to vastly improve your development effort.

Contents and time line:

This session contains some control theory (on a popular science level), but the main focuses is on discussing and mapping common practices. After that we will go into details and discuss what kind of feedback they provide at what cost/effort.

Part 1: Introduction (10 min)
    * Introduction to feedback
    * Interesting characteristics of your feedback
    * Why closing a feedback loop is essential

Part 2: Mapping your activities (? min)
    * Gathering examples of activities
    * Mapping feedback by characteristics
 
Part 3: Discussions (? min)
    * What characteristics are most relevant
    * Other charater
    * Sharing of stories.
        - Where is a specific practice generating relevant feedback
        - When was a practice considered wasteful
        - ...

Iterating over part 2 and 3 until the time has run out?

Intended audience:

Anyone working in a changing environment.

Prerequisites:
Good if the attendees have worked in an agile environment

Expected benefits:

 - Learn why should you close the feedback loop

 - Analyze your activities from a feedback perspective

 - See what the costs are of different forms of feedback

 - Be able to make more informed decisions