What is Agile?
Today, I’m going to demonstrate Agile
By playing FOOTBALL with a pencil.
Oh - and stick around to the end because I have a favour to ask.
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This is St James Park
Home of Newcastle United Football Club.
I was born in Newcastle, and grew up a few miles out of town.
In Newcastle, they say that football isn’t life and death.
It’s more important than that.
Alas, my football skills were sadly lacking.
But there was this game we’d play in class
when the teacher wasn’t looking.
Football.
Kind of.
..I’m sketchy on the rules
I guess we’d take turns to get across the pitch
and score a goal.
It struck me recently,
that the game is a rather lovely demonstration of Agile.
We have value delivered in small increments
as the “ball” makes its way up the pitch.
And we have the opportunity to “course correct”:
It's easy to recover from a wayward first kick
I think I’ve just figured out how to play this game.
Now, where did I put my SPECIAL pencil
Ah here it is,
My turn
Ready
Aim
Aim some more
Fire.
As I'm sure you've guessed,
this enormous pencil represents a Waterfall Approach.
It’s an eggs in one basket approach:
we design, build and test this leviathan
and launch it into the world.
It’s either a big hit…
or a miss.
No second chances.
If our aim is true If the playing field is flat.
If the goal posts don’t move.
We’re on to a winner.
For me, that’s an awful lot of “ifs”.
An awful lot of RISK.
In an uncertain world, the enormous pencil starts to look less like an unfair advantage
And more like a big-ass liability.
In an uncertain world, we need a pencil that’s more…
What a good word here?
Agile.
With this small but perfectly formed Agile pencil
Our aim doesn’t have to be true.
The playing field doesn’t need to be flat.
The goal posts don’t need to stay put.
All we have to do…
is keep kicking.
So what did you make of the "What is Agile?" pencil analogy?
Perhaps you hated it.
You thought that it didn’t work at all.
Perhaps you really liked it
and are wondering where you can your hands on an enormous pencil.
Either way, I’d like your help with something I’m planning.
I’m on a mission to collect the best “Agile Analogies”.
So if you have a good one…
or have heard of a good one…
or can think of a good one
Please let me know.
If it helps to answer the question: “What is Agile?”
I want to hear about it.
Let me know in the comments below.
I very much look forward to reading them
and I’ll feature the best ones in a future episode
- or episodes
Thank you very mcuh for watching
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Cheers for now.