How can we influence companies who are simply concerned with shareholder capital without respect for human capital starting with the software development and IT business? Social Capital Do we need an Ethical Framework in the Software Development and IT Business? Welcome everybody to the first Grant Rule Memorial Talk. I met Grant Rule a number of years ago, and I was very impressed with his wisdom, his intellect and his original ideas. He was very well respected and liked by most people. For me, he was a very important, intellectual partner because whenever I had difficulty trying to figure out what I needed to do when perhaps working with organizational change or introducing Lean and Agile, he always had some words of encouragement and wisdom about how I could move things forward. Sadly, I miss that. When it came to thinking about a subject for this talk, it set my mind back to the times I worked with Grant. ‘What was his main strength?’ I asked myself. I think his main strength, in addition to his knowledge on Lean, Agile and software development, was his patience. I think that ran through the way he approached all his work. He was always patient. He would listen to people and gently lead them, through a series of questions, to new insights without making them feel silly or stupid. And that was an incredible gift. So when I was asked to do this talk I had to think long and hard about ‘What would Grant like me to talk about?’ because there was a whole range of subjects he was very interested in. I started thinking about what values he was trying to bring into the world of software development. Apart from all the methods and the tools and the processes he developed, he also had a very human side and it was that humanity he was trying to get people to really understand. Technical Debt In addition, he often talked about things like technical debt in software and he of course, as I said, had the methods and processes for dealing with it. He also talked even more about ‘social capital,’ which is basically the collective benefits derived from corporations between individuals and groups, while helping people realize their potential in the workplace. This was a consistent and really important theme that came from Grant and all his work. Nevertheless, there were occasions when we got frustrated because of the large number of organizations who were just adopting the tools and methods in software development and IT without really thinking about what it meant for the way we manage the people who are actually doing the work. We know these methods only work when management behaviors and attitudes towards people changed from treating people as transactional workers to knowledge workers, to allow them to contribute their ideas and be free to experiment and innovate. Social Capital I wanted to make this notion of ‘social capital’ and changing the lives of people by changing the work environment, particula

1. Grant Rule Memorial Talk
By Stephen Parry 11/8/2012 UK Software Metrics Association
Author of Sense and Respond 23rd Annual Conference: 21st
Century Metrics
Social Capital
Do we need an Ethical Framework in the Software The Grant Talks
Development and IT Business? •••
Even though many of us work
Welcome everybody to the first to people and gently lead them,
Grant Rule Memorial Talk. through a series of questions, to in a world of analysis, data and
new insights without making them detailed measurements, Grant
I met Grant Rule a number of years feel silly or stupid. And that was never forgot what it was all for,
ago, and I was very impressed with an incredible gift. he challenged everyone to help
his wisdom, his intellect and his
people do better work,
original ideas. He was very well So when I was asked to do this talk
improve themselves along with
respected and liked by most people. I had to think long and hard about
For me, he was a very important, ‘What would Grant like me to talk
their companies and societies,
intellectual partner because about?’ because there was a whole to realise their human potential
whenever I had difficulty trying to range of subjects he was very to create possibilities for a
figure out what I needed to do when interested in. I started thinking better life.
So how do we respond to his
The greatest waste in organizations is the waste in challenge? How can we
human potential. influence companies who are
simply concerned with
shareholder capital without
perhaps working with organizational about what values he was trying to respect for human capital
change or introducing Lean and bring into the world of software starting with the software
Agile, he always had some words of development. Apart from all the development business?
encouragement and wisdom about methods and the tools and the
how I could move things forward. processes he developed, he also
Sadly, I miss that. had a very human side and it was
that humanity he was trying to get
When it came to thinking about a people to really understand.
subject for this talk, it set my mind
back to the times I worked with Technical Debt
Grant. ‘What was his main strength?’
The Grant Rule Trust. The
In addition, he often talked about Trust will be seeking to
I asked myself. I think his main
things like technical debt in promulgate the insights into
strength, in addition to his
software and he of course, as I said,
effective business practice
knowledge on Lean, Agile and
discovered or inspired by
software development, was his had the methods and processes for
Grant through a series of
patience. I think that ran through the dealing with it. He also talked even
"Grant Talks"
way he approached all his work. He more about ‘social capital,’ which
www.grantrule.org
was always patient. He would listen is basically the collective benefits

2. derived from corporations between Purposeful measurement engagement of the knowledge
individuals and groups, while workers themselves and their
helping people realize their potential Unfortunately, software and IT removal or withdrawal of their
in the workplace. This was a measurement and development willing contribution and their
consistent and really important methods in the hands of a particular innovation. Basically, they withdrew
theme that came from Grant and all management style and approach, their talent. And not only is this a
his work. ones that tend to treat knowledge social capital issue—it makes no
Nevertheless, there were occasions
when we got frustrated because of
The wrong measurement applied for the wrong
the large number of organizations
who were just adopting the tools and reasons in the wrong way, often results in the
methods in software development wrong people being placed in the wrong.
and IT without really thinking about
what it meant for the way we
manage the people who are actually work as if it were a commodity, is business sense either because it
doing the work. We know these sadly all too common. Often there results in the creation of products
methods only work when are well-intentioned managers who and services that are not as good as
management behaviors and attitudes use software and IT measures for the they could be.
towards people changed from wrong purposes, applying them in
order to create work intensification, I remember having many
treating people as transactional
to assign blame and target discussions with Grant about the
workers to knowledge workers, to
underperforming staff. The wrong software practice of refactoring,
allow them to contribute their ideas
measurement applied for the wrong debating whether it was waste or
and be free to experiment and
reasons in the wrong way often value? And after a lot of discussions,
innovate.
results in the wrong people being we both came to the conclusion that
it was unnecessary waste work,
Social Capital placed in the wrong.
occasionally unavoidable but waste
I wanted to make this notion of
‘social capital’ and changing the lives
of people by changing the work
Measurement is a two-edged sword that must be
environment, particularly software used wisely to avoid self-inflicted wounds
development and IT environments,
the main theme for today.
Measurement is a two-edged sword work nonetheless. I’m sure some of
When discussing software that must be used wisely to avoid you might take issue with Grant and
development, Grant talked about self-inflicted wounds. me on that view. Software
issues like technical debt, he worked development organizations and IT
very hard to reduce it by creating Therefore, we return again to the fact businesses, however, are still
and teaching methods to produce that it’s all about the mentality of dominated by the mass production,
software products that worked with those who apply these measures— industrialization, command- and-
little or no rework, that meet the and to what purpose? control paradigm.
needs of customers and the business.
When he did so, he kept stressing Work intensification Having met Grant a number of years
that the work climate needed to ago, I have since been introduced to
There are too many environments
foster respect for people, create a many software developers. Often
where management is striving to
blame-free approach and even when delivering Lean Seminars to IT
intensify the work, to speed it up,
eradicate fear in the workplace. This infrastructure staff, application
and this results in increased errors,
way, software developers could support and development staff, I
rework, and technical debt. In these
become creative, innovative and found really great people being
situations, what decreased was the
adaptive. constrained from great achievements.

3. And the one thing that I know about the focus of current management really big problem within the
software developers and IT staff, practices?’ industry as a whole.
having worked in the industry for
some years, is that they have a great Well, we tried better measurement I have spoken to a lot of people,
interest in creative ideas, new but that sort of misfired, not visited many workplaces, many
methods and theories but feel everywhere to be fair, but it didn’t were good but sadly there are not
frustrated when they know they can succeed or break through to new enough of them. Many are using
deliver so much more but feel management practices as much as industrial thinking, creating
trapped by old world management we would have hoped. environments that are quite
thinking. oppressive, lack flair and ingenuity
We tried better methods. Grant was and give rise to a feeling that people
very good at that, but that too failed
Taking control only deliver what is needed to
to change the work climate where survive and nothing more. Many
What I think many are trying to do is the willing contribution was would leave if they had somewhere
take control of their environment in withdrawn. to go. Many do leave and set up
spite of the management structures their own business but they often fail
So measuring software and IT SLA’s
and practices around them, in spite because they don’t have the
is not enough, better methods and
of the way the measurement is used connections; they don’t have the
processes are not enough. We must
against them. This I believe has relationships; they don’t have the
start measuring and changing the
given rise to the proliferation of so business acumen, and very often,
climate in which development and
many new methods, such as Agile, they reluctantly return to places
IT work is performed.
Scrum, Lean, Kanban and the like. they’ve just escaped from.
Start measuring the work
The right question is ‘how do we change the climate
climate or the system and the focus of current
management practices?’ So, we need to think about
measuring the environment. We
need to start talking to management
They just want to get control of their I’m at a point now, to issue a about moving away from disciplined
work and their lives; they do not challenge to you all. Many of you compliance towards disciplined
want to be treated as a commodity or are in the measurement business. experimentation. We need to remind
as an interchangeable part. You often Many of you know how people about human potential. We
hear them saying, especially when measurement can be used wisely and need to say that it’s all about the way
they know there are better ways they how it can be used foolishly. we treat people, and we need to
are not allowed to try, ‘Look, it’s a foster an environment for willing
creative act. It’s a knowledge-based So, my challenge here to you as a contribution, autonomy, innovation
complex activity and you cannot community, is to start thinking about and customer outcomes, all fear free.
force that into simplistic tasks.’ not only measuring the production
methods but also start measuring the However, I am afraid that even
So, I asked myself ‘is this a fault of climate that workers work in. measurement of the workplace
management?’ and I think no, it’s not climate is still not enough. Sure it’s
the fault of management. They are I am issuing you that challenge important to know where we are, but
under pressure too. They are victims because there is little point in being what is even more important is
of the same way of thinking, and really good at measurement and knowing where we need to get to. I
very often, if they don’t conform, production methods if the climate believe we need a professional ethics
they have to leave. itself doesn’t allow us to realize our framework.
return on the potential in the people
The right question is ‘how do we and the potential investment in the We have tried accreditations and
change the climate or the system and software and infrastructure. This is a manifestos and that moved us
forward, but accreditations and

4. manifestos talked mainly about the While I am proposing we create a they were all saying, ‘Yes, we really
techniques and methods for better new framework of ethics, I’m not do need something like this, because
production to reduce technical debt. asking us to put it in so that we can at the moment, all we do is sit there
I am now talking about something have a list of things we can go and and complain that our managers do
much higher than that. I am talking beat people up with. That would be not understand and we accuse them
about software development counterproductive, so we would of being command and control
organizations and IT businesses in need to build in safeguards. managers,’ when in fact, they know
general, adopting a set of no other way to evaluate their
management ethics—not the usual What it would mean, however, is behaviors.
corporate stated values, such as, ‘We that we would be able to say,
value teamwork,’ and ‘We value our whether we apply Lean, Agile, Creating wealth together
customers.’ This is often rhetoric in Kanban, software measurement—
whatever it is—we can say, ‘These What I want to do now is create a
the marketing brochure and absent
methods will only work and deliver unifying force, starting with a
in the workplace.
their full potential if we actually number of people who will come
We need a set of professional ethics create an environment based on this together to create this framework. I
to provide a sounding board against ethical framework.’ want to start small. I’ve got one or
which we can gauge our behaviors, two people already interested. And I
with which we can test and What we all need to be working on, am pushing this out to you. If any of
challenge ourselves and be held the staff, the managers and the you are interested in helping me
accountable. owners of the business—is actually form a small group to set up the
trying to figure out what those ethics process by which we can start
Ethical Framework mean in their own companies, developing these ethics, then testing
workplaces and teams. it with the communities such as the
The concept of ethical frameworks is
not new to businesses. In the
medical, psychology and coaching
The soft stuff is the hard stuff and it’s the only stuff
professions, ethical codes of practice
are well established. These are all that creates wealth in the knowledge business
examples of ethical frameworks
being applied to knowledge work.
My challenge now, to you in the Agile community, the Kanban
There are even lesser-known ethical
software measurement community, communities, IT etc., then please let
frameworks for non-knowledge
the software development me know directly by email or via my
work such as franchising.
community and the IT community, is blog site www.leanvoices.com
I’m thinking, if an industry as to create a professional ethical
framework specifically for your I know some people will be critical
reasonably straightforward as
businesses. and say this is motherhood and
franchising can adopt a code of
apple pie and it’s all about soft stuff
ethics to outline how the parties are
going to behave, and professions Is there a need? in a tough business environment,
and my answer to that is: This idea is
such as doctors, can have ethical
Before delivering this talk, I wanted not only about people and social
frameworks, then why can’t we have
to test the idea of an ethical capital; it actually makes perfect
one for software development
framework. I wanted see if it was a business sense. It is more profitable.
companies and IT businesses? They
crazy idea or not. So, I spoke at a It is more innovative. The soft stuff
too are knowledge-based and
number of software development is the hard stuff, and at the end of
requires technical skills. They too
and IT conferences and simply asked the day, the only stuff that creates
have to keep their skills up to date.
the audiences, ‘Is there a need for wealth in the knowledge business.
They too have to keep learning
organizations to understand the We are now in an age where we
modern techniques and methods.
ethical and behavioral part of need to put away industrial thinking.
They too have to be creative and
development and IT support?’ and We need to put away command and
adaptive.

5. control management. We need to put I will leave you with perhaps one organizations that are making
away the notion that everything more crazy thought, which is, ‘What investments in new technologies,
comes top down, and we need to put would it be like if you had a software new processes, new measurement
away the commoditization of equivalent of a Fairtrade mark?’ systems or frantically going after one
knowledge workers. Software and IT Imagine we had a badge, which said, accreditation after the other.
is so much at the heart of everything ‘This software is command- and
we do in the world today. This control-free,’ or such like? I would We no longer have to stay silent
ethical framework is not only about like to examine whether that would about the human factor; we can
realizing the potential of staff and be possible, because if we could do factor it in. And if we can do that, I
managers, but helping realize the that, we could engage consumers by think we will be true to what Grant
potential of the people in the world giving them an ethical-social choice has been telling us all along. We can
with software and infrastructures about which software they purchase. really create a legacy and we can
that are not only profitable but Then, we would really demonstrate make command-and-control
changes lives and creates new the power of social capital. management history, at least in the
opportunities and social capital. software and IT industries. Then,
Now, I may be overreaching, but who knows, we can move on to
One more thought for unless we look at the potential, we other industries?
won’t get very far. With an Ethical
software development Thank you very much.
Framework we can all start raising
awareness and a debate. Let’s talk to
Stephen Parry
Author of Sense and Respond: The Journey to Customer Purpose
Senior Partner at Lloyd Parry
www.lloydparry.com
Stephen Parry is an organisational designer, international leader and strategist on the creation of Lean service enterprises that
are adaptive, innovative and engaging. He has a world-class reputation for passionate leadership and creating global
organizations with superior service climates by changing the way employees, managers and leaders think about the business.
He developed the Sense and Respond 3.0 principles and methods to bring about customer, employee, management and
leadership behavioral change and organisational development.
If you wish to be involved with the formation of the new ethical management framework then contact Stephen directly via
Stephen.parry@lloydparry.com or his blog www.leanvoices.com
If you wish to know more about the Grant Rule Trust or make a donation then please visit www.grantrule.org Thank you.