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
2. I’m @stevejxsn steve@testdouble.com
4. Takeaways • Failure as a learning aid • Reactions to failure • Hypotheses • Making safe places
16. Option 1: IGNORE
17. Option 2: REFRAME
18. Option 3: DEFLECT
19. Option 4: AVOID
20. Option 5: I WILL FAIL
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."
22. Hypothesis Embrace failure to avoid Regret Avoidance
23. Regret Avoidance
36. http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/153/d/f/the_scientific_method_by_jackcomstock- d3hv0yo.jpg
37. Define Fail Fail Refactor Pass Pass Acceptance Test Developer Test TDD ATDD
38. •Define success criteria •Define failure criteria •Strive to end the meeting Meetings
39. Hypothesis Express goals to avoid Reframing
41. Hypothesis Antifragile software is easy to change
44. Antifragile
45. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tpapi/2765541278
48. Hypothesis Debt makes you vulnerable
50. Hypothesis Local failures over global failures
54. Hypothesis Reverse expected failure to learn how to reverse random failure
58. Failure as a non-event
77. Hypothesis Blame prevents innovation
80. Hypothesis Failure is easier in safe spaces
84. What do you celebrate?
85. Which failures do you acknowledge?
86. What gets discussed in the open?
87. What exceptions do you make? Which ones do you never allow?
88. What is your tolerance for failure?
89. What do you say about people outside your team during challenging situations?
90. Law Change is inevitable Resistance is futile
95. Success Failure
96. Failure Success
97. Failure Success
99. I’m @stevejxsn steve@testdouble.com Thanks!