In response to the latest post, a friend forwarded a link with no other comments.
http://www.leadingagile.com/2015/09/dependencies-are-evil/
Only if you do not make them your friends, I would say. Only by keeping them close you can get to know them. It’s a bit like in TOC where we learn that the bottleneck is our best friend. Like that with other constraints and decencies I would say.
Why? Well – it’s all about where we have the opportunity to exercise our agility.
Agile in reality is all about structure which will surface as constraints and dependencies.
With the right friends you achieve the right freedom through structure.
De-friend your bad dependencies and leverage from the good ones.
Some believe that agility is achieved through teams and team performance.
I believe that part of achieving agility is through creating an environment where teams have the freedom to perform.
If you have talented, self-organizing teams, little else will be needed.
Part of the equation is to be BFF with your constraints and dependencies – to really get to know all of them well. But of course, you need to make sure that you have the right friends and not more than you can handle 🙂
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The book ‘Six simple rules’ offer some support for the value of BFFing your dependencies. On pp 113-5 the book talks about ‘exclusive control’ and ‘self-sufficiency’ … aka not being dependend. Leading to an aversion against cooperation. Alternatively you should remain dependend, but be accountable and autonomous …