Devops for Growth

This came up within another “little conversation” that I had with Jim McCarthy at the OSA (Open Space Agility) FB group, the other day. Yes, the the author of the Core Protocols, and a guy that has the uncanny ability to make me more blunt, as if I needed any help.

But now this statement is really getting to me, burning me, really. How did this happen? Wouldn’t you expect that WE, the people that tell the entire world that Agile is the “way to go”, the “way of the future”, the “better way”, be Agile in what we do?

Let’s break it down a bit, before it appears to be just another “complaining” rant:

1. Agile Manifesto

Let’s start here, from the “original source” that defines what Agile is.

As much as I am proud of the merits and accomplishments of the Agile Manifesto, it’s really not a very good explanation of what Agile really is. Mind you, not that there is anything wrong with it, it is just not very well explained. I think Alistair Cockburn has done a good job with his Heart of Agile with a better explanation, but I find myself at odds saying that the official source that defines Agile, needs improvement.

Shouldn’t we be eating our own “dog food” …and iterate and IMPROVE???

The heart of Agile

In my mind, Agile is simple (but not easy). Work tiny. Prove it. Get done. Learn constantly. Work together. Tech first. This is all about focusing on the details, not the big ideas. This isn’t values and principles. This is simply doing every detail well.

InfoQ interviewed Ritika Singh about the heart of agile, using Shu-Ha-Ri and Kokoro to achieve the mastery of being agile, and to adapt to the pace of the market and competitive change.

InfoQ: How can we use the heart of agile from Alistair Cockburn to map out daily agile activities?

Ritika Singh: Heart of agile talks about an agile culture by simplifying it into four stages – Collaborate, Deliver, Reflect and Improve and if we look into daily agile activities, they all revolve around these four imperatives.

If we dive deep into agile activities all we are trying to achieve is more collaboration within and between teams starting with the daily stand-ups, refinements, and sprint planning which helps teams to collaborate with all the required stakeholders, making it fast and simple for teams to deliver. This is then followed by retrospectives which give teams and organizations a chance to reflect and eventually improve on things for them to perform better. So, overall the heart of agile very well depicts the agile activities.