Agile Estimation and Planning
Part 3 – Definition of Done
Something else happened when I hired Ed to mow my lawn. He brought friends. Not only was Ed mowing my lawn, but he had another guy with a gas-powered trimmer and yet another guy with a leaf-blower helping him. So when he was “Done” with my lawn, not only had he completed the mowing job in less time, but he had DONE MORE than I ever did in my 45 minutes. Trimming! Edging! Cleanup! And once my wife realized those were on the table, those all became desirable additions to my lawn mowing regimen as well! It was no longer sufficient for me to just gas up my mulching mower and try to get as close as I could to the flower beds. I needed to pull out my electric trimmer, and follow myself around the yard, then edge the sidewalk, and then make sure I swept the sidewalk and driveway. Guess what! My 45-minute job wasn’t 45 minutes anymore! Ed has a team of three people. My team still only has me on it. All that additional work added another hour to the time it takes me to complete a typical 1-point lawn (thanks a lot, Ed).
I ask again. Think carefully. Has the lawn changed size, now? I’m doing so much more to deliver the same job. Surely the added activities affect the size of the job… right?
Nope.
The lawn is still the same lawn it always was. But the definition of what constitutes a completed, quality job has certainly changed! And because I now need to do more things to complete the same sized lawn, my rate of delivery will go down. In order to maintain the new quality benchmark, I will get fewer lawns done.
Understanding this distinction is absolutely key! The job didn’t change size; the level of expectation changed, and my team failed to adapt to that change. The result was a measurable impact on my ability to deliver value and quality (completed lawns).
Why would I insist on looking at it this way? Consider this: Recall, earlier I had estimated that I could deliver 16 points of lawns in a weekend — sixteen lawns just like mine. In order to compete with Ed’s lawn service, I can no longer get away with a mow-only task list. I need to perform the same quality tasks that Ed provides! If I equated size to time, I would now have to re-estimate all of the lawns in my list! Instead of 45 minutes, they’re taking 45+60=105 minutes. By that magic conversion factor of 1 point = 45 minutes, those 1 point lawns in my neighborhood are now 2.33 points each (because math). The corner lots are now 4.66 and the weird lot is a whopping 6.99.
Also, since you already had the calculator out, the project manager / mathematicians went even further: “By my calculations, in the same 16 hour work weekend, you can now to do (16 hours x 60 minutes per hour ) / 105 (minutes per lawn) = 9 lawns.
See how easy this is? You changed the scale and did math again, trying to force me to commit to something like (2.33 x 9 = 20.97 — aw heck, let’s say 21 points). Shame on you! Put that thing down before you hurt somebody!
When a 1-point lawn was 45 minutes, you demanded 21 points, even though I was only willing to commit to 16. Now that a 1-point lawn is (apparently) 105 minutes, you still want 21 points. Except that before, that 21 points would have delivered 21 pieces of customer value, and now that same 21 points is only delivering 9 pieces. My team appears to have maintained velocity (that’s good, right?), but we’re not advancing anywhere near that rate! Only 9 customers are able to be satisfied by the same “21” points.
Also keep in mind, that I’m still not accepting your math. I was only willing to commit to 16 points per weekend. And I’m not going to re-estimate everything on my backlog, either. THE LAWNS DIDN’T CHANGE SIZE!
With the impact the new Definition of Done is bringing to the table, unless I do something to correct my team makeup, you’re going to see my velocity drop like a stone to 7 points – seven lawns instead of sixteen. And that very rightly should set off a red flag somewhere.
