I have to admit I do not fully understand the reason that I care so much about, of all things, the SDLC. I care more about building software than I care about Global Warming, Shamu, or almost anything besides family and trying to get big. There are a couple of potential reasons for this, and I want to list them not so you or I understand, but so the reason I have become an evangelist without a sponsor can be brought to light. It is a selfish post. Maybe you will have thoughts about it. Maybe they will be “dang this kid is a mess” or “boy, we need to hire him ASAP.” That is up to you.

1. Dad said to find out what you are better than other people at, and consider it as a career. He actually said something slightly different, but you don’t know Dad so you would not understand him as it reads.

2. The SDLC is what delivers software;

2a. Software can keep track of inventory or pay bills, but it can also bring hope to the hopeless and health to the sick. It can do real good, and the SDLC drives the delivery of all these little bricks that will build that world our children will live in.

3. My career has followed a path much like a river follows the landscape (or, if you like Hendrix quotes, like the Moon loves the Great Blue Sea). It evolved naturally, took on momentum, and I did not set a goal but instead chose a direction that would bring me closer to where I wanted to be, even though I could not fully articulate where I wanted to be.  I did not choose to be this weird half PM half SDLC half Generalist person. I’d have been better off sticking with VB back in the 90′s and updating my MS skills along the way so I could present myself as a Technical Lead with crazy Visual Studio skills and mastery of all things MS. I’d be better off in regard to the availability of contracts where there is a very quantitative measure, at least. For me, that is not enough.

4. I react on a visceral level to fraudulent or insincere and profit-motivated actions in the Agile arena. This is probably a result of the aforementioned.

5. I was a philosophy major, and see no use in that which cannot be applied except to allow those who want to engage in cerebral debate that very luxury. I have not time for luxury, with so much work to do. We want to change the world here at MiT Consultants.

6. I love people who care about what they do, and the SDLC helps me help them. At the end of the day, I have made absurd amounts of money and felt good about a number, but I have also helped a kid in a really bad part of Boston find a job, and felt good about life. Huge difference. Agile and not just Scrum is simply the realization that the SDLC is a process unlike others and where change is expected, you must check in often. It is why babies are not left alone for days at a time; they need to be assessed. Hungry? Thirsty? Whatever else babies need too – I do not have any yet. I think they need like, hugs and stuff as well.

7. I abhor thieves and frauds, as stated, and the proper SDLC ensures a transparency that makes perpetrating something I consider criminal and other consider “business” near impossible. I have not always been an Angel. I will not lie. However, my word has always been good and I have never broken a promise. I also have always done what I thought was right, in my chest, regardless of the process’ dictum. Of course, first you try to change the process or rule, but failing that I simply will not tell a Client that “you have to pay 50 percent more if you want it to work with Internet Explorer; we never discussed that and it is not in the SOW.” Oh yeah – there are companies that do that. I worked for one. It still makes me stick to my stomach. I introduced informed estimates (which slowed down the estimate process) and Management was displeased until we started landing more projects despite submitting fewer bids. I abhor sloppiness and selfishness. I do so in a very selfish way.

8. OO GUI tools enabled iterative development and “Agility” during the Development Phase by breaking what was lines and lines of code into encapsulated and re-visitable, refactorable, replaceable components. PowerBuilder was a leader in the mid 90′s. They had the Data Window. I was part of that, and thought it was awesome. We did JAD sessions before anyone was talking about Agile. Agile is not some shiny new thing with infomercials. It is substantive. Before it was applied to development, people were using iterations. If you have ever drawn up a legal contract, you are familiar with documentation iterations and collaboration within a team environment.

There are more reasons, but that is enough.

I was recently in an interview when someone told me “you seem very sure of yourself. Is that ever a problem?” This was a Sr. VP asking me, so I wanted to be clear on what he was suggesting. I asked if he meant I come across as cocky. He said no. I then explained that I love to be wrong, and I love to be the dumbest person in the room. There is no one right answer. Look at my blog. Back in 2007 I was saying things with utter and rabid conviction that I would tear apart now like Mikey the Wonder Dog tears apart vitually every toy meant for “normal dogs.” I don’t take those posts down and try to instill some false sense of knowing the right answer all along. When I, personally, learn through experience or teaching, I learn it more “deeply” than if I read it and believe it. I digest it, and like a vitamin that I am deficient in, it is made part of the organism. The delivery method. Part SDLC, part Practitioner.

Fact: People don’t like change.

Fact: People like it when change is their idea much better than when it is imposed.

Fact: People want to do well and feel good.

Fact: Dictum is the opposite of adoption.

Fact: People are what software is all about. Even with MDA and RDF (support RDF please! And Stop. Trusting. Google. SERIOUSLY! (Great video, thank you Mr. Olivieri).

Start working WITH impartial standards) – it is ultimately about people. Stop trusting “experts” and become an expert. Nobody knows what you do like you do, and you can test expert theories, would be negligent not to, probabbly, but ultimately it is your (our) responsibility to take ownership. If I am speaking to a President of a 500MM dollar corporation, they are eyes and a brain with motivations and a mind that I have free access to. Why introduce bologna into something so powerful?

I don’t mean the bologna sandwich. A sandwich can make a lot of people really like you. It is how I got Lara to marry me. Romance at the Deli. I am quite the courtship artist. Ask her

So here is another place I will contradict myself. I got into a bit of a beef with several Twitter folks (Twits) about the fact that they were “Agile Coaches” teaching Scrum. My reasoning was that Scrum is a process, and the Agile Manifesto expresses the need for people before process. In other words, no one process is best for all teams.

I still agree with that, but have thought about it. Even writing the Agile Manifesto was a *process*. Scrum happens to be very digestible and it sets guidelines for transition to Agile or refining of Agile/Scrum technique. It is bright and shiny and there are certificates that lend it authority and it makes sense to start with Scrum – but accompanied with the basic Agile tenets and the flexibility to introduce concepts like Kanban if the team reveals itself to be more likely to adopt it. Here we have processes and people, and the people are informing the processes, which in turn provide guidance or best practices to the people. It becomes academic and about semantics. Scrum is ready to go. XP is not as much. Kanban is really super cool to ME, but makes other people stare with that blank look. I think it is because I learned to be Agile even when working construction, then learned it as it applies to software in form of Scrum, and can see the value streams in the process through the eyes of a non-technical person, a technical person, and a change facilitator. This makes me that aforementioned Generalist, but is also pretty empowering. Basically, I want you and your team to have success. I want software to change the world. I want to be a part of that amazing movement where a glimmer in the eye of an entrepreneur becomes an applications with a million users. That is magical. My discipline is facilitating change and manifesting the abstract as real, repeatable, value-filled brick to build that future my kids will live in. In software, we have enormous responsibility. We must protect technology from big money lobbying and marketing and encourage the community to sing We Are the World and get stuff done. Get it done. Feeling good about yourself and your career will follow from getting it done.

Bless you, and thanks for your time today. It is a gorgeous 72 degrees here dead in the middle of Providence and Boston, and I am going to be changing my entire business model, inspired by the sun. I know which way to go. I know which way I need to go. And, more importantly, I know how to help you. Stay tuned, please.

Best Regards, and if you ride motorcycles, please remember it isn’t you that you have to worry about. It is the other guy/gal who is bopping along to The Cheeky Girls and driving like an idiot.

The Cheeky Girls will make you smile. Or, you will lose all respect for me. Click at your own risk. Not obscene, but they say the word “bum” a couple times and some of you are tightasses.

Josh Milane