Working Agile Methodology Like a Rented Mule
Most of you know me here on Steemit as an author of but by day I work for a large insurance and financial services company. Juggling between writing and promoting my books, creating content on Steemit, working my day job, and finding time for a personal life isn’t always easy. This demanding schedule requires me to work smarter and utilize every spare minute of the day to its fullest so I have time left for a little fun.
One of my responsibilities at my day job is managing projects. I’ve learned many valuable things in my twenty-three year career but one of the most valuable and amazing tools I’ve found is Agile Methodology. Agile was born in the software development world as a method to, very efficiently, steer all kinds of software engineering projects from concept to completion.
I’m going to present a rather stripped down and customized version of the Agile process here in an effort to make it more adaptable.
Sprints
Agile Methodology is people focused, scalable for large or small projects, but works best when used in work teams of no more than eight to ten people. Agile requires you to work in units of measure called “sprints”. A sprint is really just a period of time, typically a week or two in duration. The key to an effective sprint is for it to be long enough to get individual tasks done but not so long that individual responsibilities can be swept aside. More on this later.
Stories
During these week, or two week long sprints individuals meet face-to-face or virtually to create, “stories” which are really just actionable ideas. This is all a very democratic process. Each person involved in the sprint has a say in whether or not the story (or idea) should be implemented.
Once the group decides the idea is worthy and actionable then each person is asked to decide how much value the story/task will provide to the overall project. Another vote is taken and each person assigns it a number (1, 3, 5, 8, or infinity – with infinity, of course, being the largest). Again, it’s all a very democratic process, each team member is able to voice their opinion of how much value the story/task will add to the overall project.
Story Owner
After the team decides if a story is actionable and places a value on the story then it’s determined who the best team member is to be responsible for completing it. Once the story owner is identified the story is written on a Post-it note (or in an Excel spreadsheet), along with its value, and placed in the current sprint column.
Accountability
There are very informal weekly or bi-weekly “stand up” meetings where all of the story owners must report back to the work team on their progress in getting their stories done. These stand-up meetings are so effective because they encourage the story owners to take accountability and actively work on their task. It makes you feel like a hero if you can report good progress or a completed task. This can also make you feel like a loser if you’ve dropped the ball: no one wants to stand up in from of their work team and say nothing has been accomplished. If there are valid roadblocks or problems, it’s okay, these meetings are a forum to discuss this kind of thing and find solutions as a team.
Sprints can be very intense and they have the incredible by-product of sparking comradery and building much more cooperation among team members. The main strength of Agile Methodology is just as the name implies: it’s adaptable and can easily work with pretty much anything that needs to getting done. There’s are very good reasons why Apple employs this methodology for pretty much every project they work on. Agile things get done efficiently and it democratizes the workplace in the process.
Unintended Consequences
After using the Agile Methodology non-stop at work for well over a year I suddenly noticed that the philosophy was beginning to subconsciously bleed over into my personal life. I realized I started placing a value on nearly everything that needed to get done in my life and more effectively prioritizing it all.
People sometimes ask me (especially this past summer and fall when I was posting twice a day here on Steemit, reading, curating, writing a meditation book, teaching meditation, holding down a full-time job, and all of life’s other responsibilities) - "How in the world do you do it all?" I’d reply with, “I don’t know, I just do.”
That reply was truthful. Sometimes at the end of the day I was in disbelief about all that had been accomplished but even I had no idea how it all got done. Of course, up until recently, I didn’t realize I was subconsciously using a very basic version of Agile the whole time.
Now that I’m aware of what I’m doing I’m consciously utilizing more of the Agile methodology in my personal life. I carry a short, and ever-evolving, list of stuff that I need to accomplish in the Notes feature of my iPhone. The only difference in this scenario is I’m not accountable to a work team but rather I’m accountable only to myself and, just between you and I, sometimes my boss can be a downright tyrant.
No, I’m not a genius or a superhero but you’d better believe I’m working that Agile Methodology like a rented mule to get things done.
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“Your competition is not other people but the time you kill, the ill will you create, the knowledge you neglect to learn, the connections you fail to build, the health you sacrifice along the path, your inability to generate ideas, the people around you who don't support and love your efforts, and whatever god you curse for your bad luck.” ~ James Altucher
I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and Steemit enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my work, my handmade poetry chapbook, Emancipation, is for sale on Peerhub for a limited time.
I enjoyed your post. When I think of agile I think of steady movements. A fluidity of sorts that cascades actions into end gain. Perfect way to organize daily task. Could this knowledge be transferred to help people that struggle with activities of daily living? Like create the easiest way for them to get their basic human needs met as in bathed, feed, watered, and nourished? A lot of elderly patients really struggle with keeping theirselves hydrated and nourished because the process of preparing food is so physically exhausting for them they end up burning more calories than they consume!
Good morning @kristy1. Agile could absolutely be adapted for the use you describe. Individual daily caloric or hydration goals could be the "stories" with the ultimate goal of setting a target weight or maintaining proper hydration for a length of time. The key to Agile is it works for anything that is "measurable". What a great idea to use it for that means!! If they're in a group setting you could turn it into a competition where the winners get praised or receive small prizes.
I can see this being a fun incentive. Great theory on how to collaborate a well function group effort!!
My ex-husband tells me I manage the family like I manage projects. LOL.
It isn't that I am unsympathetic but Agile has taught me over the past 8 years that often we allow too much in the way of feelings and emotions to rule how we manage. By stripping that away it is easier to focus on the real issues and get them resolved.
Funny! Yes, for certain things it's best to take the emotions out of the equation. Once you manage a few projects using this method you realize all kinds of creative ways to use the process.
I am always intrigued by methods to improve productivity and efficiency. Tim Ferris has been an excellent resource for this over the years.
I never heard of the Agile Methodology until this article. I can see the value of implementing "sprints" to a daily and weekly work list.
Thank you for sharing Eric!
You're welcome! I'm a huge fan of Tim Ferris' work. If you try Agile please let me know how it works for you, @lydon.sipe. Thanks for your comment!
This is great advice. 1-2 weeks is a good time period to enable some work to get done but keep people fresh enough to avoid stagnation. Thanks for sharing!
You're welcome, @donkeypong! Yes, when requesting deliverables from others I've learned it's best to set an expectation of when I expect to receive whatever it is. The key, I've learned, is to not make expectation open-ended. For example, if you need an answer on something you can say, "I'm looking forward to your response within the next couple of days." Even something subtle like this can work in communication. Thanks for reading!
Making something time sensitive is important. I've noticed when setting personal goals, they are much more likely to be achieved when setting a specific time frame.
You're absolutely correct, @shenanigator! These days we must prioritize everything and if a task doesn't have a priority or value assigned to it it gets easily swept aside.