General

Should a talk on Agile engage its target audience?

“Of course it should,” would be the your answer if you know little bit about Agile concepts.

But in practice, often they do not!

I was watching a YouTube Video from an “Agile expert” who is a Global Head of Delivery with a Leading Based Software Development Company.

My expectation was: I will get new insights about agile from his practical experiences. And guess what: I am writing a blog post titled “Should a talk on Agile engage its target audience?”

Funny, isn’t it?

Not only his speech was NOT engaging, but also there were clear misconceptions communicated –  he referred to the Agile as methodology which it is not.

Agile is a framework or mindset. Sure, you may create your own methodology based on Agile but it is not a methodology.

About engaging its audience, if you really have mastered Agile mindset, everything you do, within and outside of your professional work, will confirm to core agile principles, only the context would change.

If you deliver a talk and DO not ask questions that engage your audience, no matter what other expertise you have, you are not conveying the “right” message.

 

Don’t Code for Perfection

Enter year 2000 to know that Ket was more than a competent programmer. Not just competent, super intelligent too.

He was also a kind of perfectionist.

It was initial two years of his career but because of his intelligence he was leading the team of five and working day and night on delivering a software product that had hundreds of order booked prior to its launch.

Ket simply wouldn’t allow the less than perfect code to check in into the code repository. The code had to be “perfect” and he has to be absolutely clear about it.

He would allow the code to check in only when there is no other way left. He had to handle a lot of pressure from the investors also.

Ket’s way was a surefire recipe of a slow disaster, isn’t it?

So, don’t code for perfection. Don’t be like Ket that way. Code for excellence instead.

No one will be impressed with the software app that you have not released. You even do not know if it is a minimal viable product or not.

Perfection doesn’t exist. Strive for excellence instead. Use iterative approach. Define a set of feature, prioritize them, pick a potentially releasable set and build them to the demonstrable piece of code.

People who invest in iterative learning already have what is called “The Agile Mindset.”

That’s exactly opposite to “Perfectionist Mindset” where you invest in your illusion more than anything else without even knowing whether there is a possibility of good ROI or not.

The analogy used is for a software app but same is true with a book or a blog post or a logo design.

Ship early, ship often and keep getting better. [Click to Tweet]

Scrum is possibly the most powerful tool to help you do that. Don’t wait, find out when scrum works and when it doesn’t.