Fail fast: what is fail fast in agility and what is its role?
Fail fast or fail fast is a fundamental principle of agile methodology. In business circles, there are those who have reservations about it, as the concept is often taken out of its original context of software development. In addition, for many, it is a red herring to deal with the idea of failure. Yet failures can be a positive driving force, as long as we are able to learn the most important lessons from them. Failure can help any company grow faster and more successfully. When developing or creating anything new, mistakes are inevitable, so it's good to learn how to manage them and make the most of them.
In this article we will show you what exactly fail fast is and how it can be used. We'll go around its main benefits and how it works as an engine for agility.
What does fail fast or fail fast mean?
Fail fast is a philosophy used in agility. It means that in iterative development cycles, we need to identify failures as early as possible so that we can react to them as quickly as possible and improve product quality, customer satisfaction and project success.
Fail fast is often linked to lean management theory, which companies use when they want to develop products and services faster and with less financial risk than traditional product development approaches.
How does the fail fast or fail fast philosophy work?
The great thing about fail fast is that it seeks to remove the stigma from the term failure and infuse it with positive content. That is, it puts the focus on learning from previous failed attempts to increase the likelihood of future success.
In experimentation and innovation, we must always be open to failure. Failures lead to continuous learning, which equals progress. Failure should be seen as a necessary input for change and innovation.
Organisations that share this philosophy:
- progressively improve their products and services
- constantly monitor customer satisfaction to make sure that improvements are meeting their needs before investing more time and money in further work
- identify the varied failure points to streamline the innovation process and achieve faster success
How can organisations use fail fast successfully?
For the philosophy of quick failure to be successful, emphasis must be placed on:
- promoting a culture of safe failure by not associating failure with a negative image
- reinforcing that most decision-making is reversible
- an accurate understanding of the defects before repairs are made
- setting clear criteria for determining whether an incremental development is a failure
- flexible team building
How is fail fast reflected in agility?
A fail fast is agile methodology one of the cornerstones of. It says that speed of execution is more important than perfect execution. In today's complex business environment, the first value solution is often the best, at least initially. From there you can scale and learn from past experience. The risk of failure should never prevent a team from experimenting and trying new things.
Interesting fact: Facebook's former motto was "Done is better than perfect". This was later changed to "Move fast, break things", and then changed by founder Mark Zuckerberg to "Move fast, but please, please, don't break anything". So the fail fast approach is clearly visible.
Several of the operational principles of agile are linked to the fail fast concept, including:
- Customer satisfaction is achieved by delivering valuable work early and consistently. Fail fast helps teams know what is valuable and what is not.
- Trust and support team members to try, fail and learn from their failures.
- Give regular feedback so that teams are aware if something has failed.
- Break big projects down into smaller tasks that can be completed quickly. Smaller steps carry less risk and create more opportunities for experimentation.
- Measure progress by the amount of work done. Failing fast creates more individual, measurable steps so that progress can be properly tracked.
The benefits of failing fast
Now let's look at the key benefits of fail fast!
Benefit 1: Lower cost of failure
If errors occur during a project or product development and are not detected in time, the cost of repair usually increases exponentially.
The worst-case scenario is when the mistake is discovered after the client has the completed project. This will have a negative impact on the company's reputation and/or may result in a mass product recall, which can come at a heavy cost.
Benefit 2: Faster feedback and learning
If a mistake can be learned from, the sooner we recognise it, the sooner we can start learning. Fail fast allows you to get quick, qualitative feedback on what works and what doesn't, which you can then use to make appropriate changes to your project or development plans.
Benefit 3: Creating an innovative corporate culture
Fail fast allows an organisation to build a culture that can view failure as a positive. Leaders who want to foster innovation and creativity can use it to create an environment that encourages employees to take smart and strategic risks, rather than punishing failures that result from risk-taking.
What challenges can fail fast pose for teams?
Despite its advantages, the philosophy of quick failure can also present some challenges.
Can make you indifferent to successes and failures
Fail fast can lead teams to try things that are obviously doomed to fail, without any consequences. Rather than iterating purposefully, team members may race to finish something as quickly as possible and approach the next task without properly analysing the lessons of failure.
There can also be an indifference where teams do not give any space to the successes achieved.
Cohesion is needed within the team
Teams must be on the same page for fail fast to work. They need to review failed attempts, understand the value of failure and determine next steps.
Encouraging acceptance of failure can be difficult
Initially, it can be challenging to prepare teams to accept failure as a positive. Critics of the philosophy often acknowledge the validity of cutting losses early, but criticise the approach that carries failure in its name because of the negative association.
Conclusion
In today's fast-paced world, with ever-changing expectations, it has become increasingly necessary for organisations to be able to respond effectively to needs and demands and to identify problems in a timely manner. As we have seen above, the fail fast or fail fast philosophy in business provides a huge opportunity to turn failures into benefits and to define failures through a positive lens as a necessary driver for change and innovation, thus laying the foundation for success and customer satisfaction.
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