Responsibility, all or none

"This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done." - From: KashFlow

The 7th principle of Continuous Delivery states: "Everybody has responsibility for the release process." 

I wonder though, isn't everybody the same as nobody in this case? In the good flow of the release process everybody can be responsible and work to the end to deliver a fine product. But I always wonder what happens when the shit hits the fan. In the case where everybody is responsible, no one wants to take the blame. And either no one or all are responsible for errors.

So what does the 7th principle really means? It actually means that everybody is responsible within his own area of expertise to release a good product. As a result all processes within delivery must be known; and all processes must have owners with a responsibility to the end product. Any process without an owner is doomed to fail the end product and finger pointing is inevitable.

In this case there is even more. "Has" implies more than "is". Everyone is responsible for their own area of expertise, but all feel responsible for the end product. This is best shown by Honda when they practise the agile method of Kaizen. Everybody can intervene in the process of development and release; even if it is not the area someone is responsible for.

So the 7th principle means we all need to work to the end product, focus on our own area and be aware of the process to deliver the best possible product.

Agile engineering at Spotify

Scrum is a methodology that is limited sometimes. I just watched part one of the Spotify Engineering Culture on Vemeo and became very enthousiastic about how they work. Squads, tribes, guilds, self steering matrix organisation, all very nice solutions to common scrum problems.

Check: https://vimeo.com/85490944