Looking for Failure

Failure provides critical feedback, but we're conditioned to avoid it at all costs and forget it quickly when it happens. How can we challenge this natural human bias? I've spent the last couple years digging into "pop" psychology and thinking about how books like "Thinking Fast and Slow", "Antifragile", "Drive", "Blink", and "Outliers" apply in a software development environment. I'm most excited about this idea that if we can make failure "safe" then we can use it to learn things that we would otherwise be tempted to avoid and ignore because it might go badly. A focus on failure, both deliberate and accidental, has been beneficial in moving my projects beyond the no defects, 100% test coverage type focus and towards finding innovative ways to detect and quickly reverse failure. This is not a perseverance, "Fail fast" or failure-fetish message, but more around the idea that failure is as good as success if your goal is to improve - so stop avoiding it! My ideal outcome is to get people talking about this idea of failing purposefully and see where it goes.

Transcript

1. Looking
   for
   Failure
   @stevejxsn
   

   View Slide

2. I’m @stevejxsn
   steve@testdouble.com
   

   View Slide

3. View Slide

4. Takeaways
   • Failure as a learning aid
   • Reactions to failure
   • Hypotheses
   • Making safe places
   

   View Slide

5. View Slide

6. View Slide

7. View Slide

8. View Slide

9. View Slide

10. View Slide

11. View Slide

12. View Slide

13. View Slide

14. View Slide

15. View Slide

16. Option 1: IGNORE
    

    View Slide

17. Option 2: REFRAME
    

    View Slide

18. Option 3: DEFLECT
    

    View Slide

19. Option 4: AVOID
    

    View Slide

20. Option 5: I WILL FAIL
    

    View Slide

21. Premortem
    "Imagine that we are a year into the
    future. We implemented the plan as it
    now exists. The outcome was a
    disaster. Please take 5-10
    minutes to write a brief
    history of that disaster."
    

    View Slide

22. Hypothesis
    Embrace failure
    to avoid Regret
    Avoidance
    

    View Slide

23. Regret Avoidance
    

    View Slide

24. View Slide

25. View Slide

26. View Slide

27. View Slide

28. View Slide

29. View Slide

30. View Slide

31. View Slide

32. View Slide

33. View Slide

34. View Slide

35. View Slide

36. http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/153/d/f/the_scientific_method_by_jackcomstock-
    d3hv0yo.jpg
    

    View Slide

37. Define Fail Fail
    Refactor
    Pass
    Pass
    Acceptance Test Developer Test
    TDD
    ATDD
    

    View Slide

38. •Define success criteria
    •Define failure criteria
    •Strive to end the meeting
    Meetings
    

    View Slide

39. Hypothesis
    Express goals
    to avoid
    Reframing
    

    View Slide

40. View Slide

41. Hypothesis
    Antifragile
    software is
    easy to change
    

    View Slide

42. View Slide

43. View Slide

44. Antifragile
    

    View Slide

45. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tpapi/2765541278
    

    View Slide

46. View Slide

47. View Slide

48. Hypothesis
    Debt makes
    you vulnerable
    

    View Slide

49. View Slide

50. Hypothesis
    Local failures
    over global
    failures
    

    View Slide

51. View Slide

52. View Slide

53. View Slide

54. Hypothesis
    Reverse expected
    failure to learn how
    to reverse random
    failure
    

    View Slide

55. View Slide

56. View Slide

57. View Slide

58. Failure as a non-event
    

    View Slide

59. View Slide

60. View Slide

61. View Slide

62. View Slide

63. View Slide

64. View Slide

65. View Slide

66. View Slide

67. View Slide

68. View Slide

69. View Slide

70. View Slide

71. View Slide

72. View Slide

73. View Slide

74. View Slide

75. View Slide

76. View Slide

77. Hypothesis
    Blame
    prevents
    innovation
    

    View Slide

78. View Slide

79. View Slide

80. Hypothesis
    Failure is
    easier in safe
    spaces
    

    View Slide

81. View Slide

82. View Slide

83. View Slide

84. What do you
    celebrate?
    

    View Slide

85. Which failures
    do you
    acknowledge?
    

    View Slide

86. What gets
    discussed in
    the open?
    

    View Slide

87. What exceptions do you
    make?
    Which ones do you never
    allow?
    

    View Slide

88. What is your
    tolerance for
    failure?
    

    View Slide

89. What do you say
    about people outside
    your team during
    challenging situations?
    

    View Slide

90. Law
    Change is
    inevitable
    Resistance is
    futile
    

    View Slide

91. View Slide

92. View Slide

93. View Slide

94. View Slide

95. Success Failure
    

    View Slide

96. Failure
    Success
    

    View Slide

97. Failure
    Success
    

    View Slide

98. View Slide

99. I’m @stevejxsn
    steve@testdouble.com
    Thanks!
    

    View Slide