What my children taught me about Agile.
My holiday started, finally some quality time with the children. And what amazes me the most? How open-minded, curious, inventive and sometimes just plain lazy they are. Just like a great team should be. I think every team should be a bit more like children, honest, curious, enthusiastic and having fun with what they do.
Deliver...
If you, as a parent, don’t guide your children they end up as angry zombies playing video games the whole afternoon or set the kitchen on fire. As a parent, you shouldn’t ignore them, but invest time in them, give them the lego, jump in your car and go out. Once you do, you will get happy children.
Deliver often and spend time with your clients to find out what they need.
The same way you have to be with your clients, you can't ignore them and expect them to be there when you want them to be, they are not happy until you give them something to play with. They will not provide the right feedback until they have their hands on something that they can use. Deliver often and spend time with your clients to find out what they need.
Plan, and adjust…
When kids are playing, they always adapt and create something better. When my son plays with the lego and builds a robot his first one, isn’t the same as the one he will play with, and he makes adjustments according to what he thinks works best at that moment. A simple game of tag quickly becomes an entirely different, more fun game.
Restart all over again
Planning, adjusting and adapting and in worst case restart all over again is what happens all the time with them. It never occurs to them to get it “right” the first time, they aren’t afraid to experiment and build something better! And to be honest, they get results and have a great time!
Why? What do you use this for? What does it do?
When kids ask questions, they want an answer. They are never shy to ask “stupid” questions. They also don’t hesitate to make it clear if whatever you do is not good. This constant feedback is good for learning, improving. Exactly the way your team should do it.
Simple works best!
What do children care about fancy holidays which cost a lot of money? They are just as happy to go to the playground and eat ice-cream. Hell mine are already glad if they can pet a cow!
It's useless to spend a lot of budget and time years on the best product which nobody needs. Make sure that you build something that works and get feedback. Simplicity is almost always the best.
Be more enthusiastic.
Every time I propose something new, a swimming pool they’ve never been before, there is resistance until they try it out. Once they try it however it was the best thing they ever did!
The same thing for your team, experiment, try out new stuff. It might be so much better than what you did before. And if it doesn’t work, hey at least you just learned something!
