Continuing our Agile journey

Agile technology

Let’s consider Rudis simple scenario some more; one that we probably encounter on a daily basis: small, simple changes to an e-commerce website. We’re not talking an entire redesign or launching promotional micro-sites here although the points listed below and the solutions discussed do scale rather nicely…

So, what are the primary issues that affect us and Rudi? I suggest this non-exhaustive list as a starter for ten (yes there are ten!):

• intellectual property ownership – Rudi: its my website damnit!
• accountability – Rudi: so let me own it!
• resource skills – Rudi: surely I don’t need to know all that technology to make changes?
• information – Rudi: I need to know what/why/how/who/if/where/when…….
• process bloat – Rudi: how many signoffs?
• systems complexity – Rudi: run that by me one more time please…!
• legacy issues – Rudi: I thought we got rid of the old system years ago – where’s John?
• cost – Rudi: but its just changing a few words on the footer!!!
• time – Rudi: why can’t it happen this month?!?
• accessibility – Rudi: just gimme access will ya!

As you have probably gleaned from earlier ramblings and additional material, Agile can go a long way to addressing a number of these points but it’s not the silver bullet on its own. We need to think about our technology platform: time to grasp the nettle that is our lifeblood my friends: let’s talk tech.

Fear not, I’ll make it an easy example: Rudi is making changes to the ‘front end’ of his site. This is the part of your site that your customers see and can be considered as most important in many respects. The front end is key to quality customer experience but also an area where business owners can make most difference without requiring heavy tech skills, process, technology or spending a small fortune every month.

How?

Good question Rudi! And I apologise for catching ‘exclamation mark-itis’. There is some ground work required first in terms of our understanding of why we have a less than ideal situation to begin with and then we can explore the agile technology solution that works so well with the Agile methodology.

Think Rudi and Reader – does any of this sound familiar? We have all been subject to products of the last internet bubble at some point in our professional lives. Meaning: we will have experienced the joys of (at least) five year old HTML that has been subject to numerous rewrites, updates and additions. The proverbial ‘woodsmans axe’ if you like…lets take a peek at what we are dealing with in reality.

Rudis first impression of this sweet little page may have been that it was lovingly crafted originally, looking superb and downloading in under a minute(!) with all the latest trends cleverly incorporated.

In actual fact, this sick puppy exhibits a nasty bite as soon as he takes a closer look under its tail. Simple changes are going to require a careful inspection of its internal workings. Rudi needs to be sure he doesn’t undo the last ‘n’ changes (where n is large) if he misses that vital closing table cell tag or Marketing will not be best pleased... he doesn’t even glance at the javascript pile steaming at the bottom of the kilometre long listing – it makes his eyes water.

I’m painting a dark, grim, cynical and pessimistic picture here but it may well be a familiar landscape that we gaze on every time we want to introduce a new promotion to our homepage. To start afresh, I shall guide you towards a relatively infrequently visited corner of the gallery that is our world of e-commerce.