38 Speciication by Example

Implement Speciication by Example as part of a wider process change

When: On greenield projects

Four teams I interviewed implemented the core ideas of Speciication by Example when moving to an agile software development process. There was no need to ight resistance to process changes or obtain management support.

Teams that were able to do this reported fewer problems and implemented the process more quickly than teams that started from a dysfunctional Scrum environment. This is most likely because all four of these teams had signiicant support as part of their agile migration (three had consultants on site, and the fourth had a team member with prior exposure to Speciication by Example).

Focus on improving quality

Instead of focusing on a particular target process, the team at uSwitch (see chapter 12) decided to focus on improving product quality. They asked all members to present suggestions for improvement and used these as inspiration. They ended up implementing most of the process patterns of Speciication by Example with little resistance.

From a management perspective, this is a particularly good approach if individuals on the team are likely to resist a process change. People might complain against Scrum, agile, Speciication by Example, Kanban, or anything else that’s process related. An open initiative to improve quality is less likely to cause complaints. David Anderson advocates focusing on quality in Kanban3 as the irst step of his recipe for success.

If developers and testers aren’t working closely together and have a difference of opinion about whether something is of acceptable quality, it might be useful to visualize activities