Agile Development Blog

In this time of “quick – figure out how to do more with less,” the ROI, work smarter message dominate the airwaves.  Back in early agile conferences “quality of life,” “fun,” and “innovation” were big reasons many teams were adopting agile. They are the main reasons that agile gets pulled into most organizations from the team level.

Pulling from her experience on Rally’s marketing team, guest poster Jessica Kahn describes the improved quality of life she gains from working in an agile organization.  This is the kind of spirit that makes agile so much more than a process fad.  It is a way of working.

Guest Post From Jessica Kahn

As a marketer, I spend a lot of time discussing how Agile speeds time to market, improves software quality and makes teams more empowered and productive.  But Agile also has a profound impact on the quality of life of people whose roles have nothing to do with product ownership or delivery.

When a company is in the pull or innovate phase of Agile adoption, the energy is different.  You join a culture of continuous learning, trust, results measurement and servant-leadership.  This energy is far more significant than the mechanics of the theory.

So, I feel compelled to share 10 ways going Agile will improve quality of life, for developers and non-developers alike.   Why should you care?  If your organization is committed to making this change, get on board.  You might see some big gains yourself.

10 Ways Agile Improves Your Quality of Life:

1.  Every team member contributes.

Since Agile empowers the delivery team, nobody can be a weak link.  They’d get exposed immediately, and they’d get left behind.  By definition, everyone has to produce strong work that contributes to project success.  And it is fun to work with people you can count on.

2.  Servant-Leadership teaches us better skills.

There is no time or place for micro-management or Command and Control in Agile.  Since servant-leadership is the goal, managers are responsible for removing roadblocks to their teams’ success.  Planning sessions prioritize the “what”, and team members are responsible for the “how”.   Do we still get lots of feedback?  Yes.  But are we told how to do our jobs?  No way.  As a bonus, you’ll learn how to be a coach and mentor for your own teams.

3.  Meetings have purpose.

We don’t meet unless we have to.  Our daily standups typically last 10 minutes.  Our planning meetings are tightly timeboxed, so we have to focus and then move on.

4.  Decisions are based on data.

We measure everything that is important to the business.   How else can you make smart decisions on where to spend your time and energy?  Rather than succumbing to the whims and opinions of a few squeaky wheels, by measuring important factors, we have the knowledge we need to back up our decisions  and stay the course, as long as it makes sense.  Therefore…

5.  Whiplash is minimal.

Have you ever worked with someone whose great ideas wagged your entire team back and forth until you could never complete a full project?  If an excited, charismatic tail wags the dog, then chaos, frustration and anger result.

In an Agile environment, you put the great project idea in the backlog, prioritize it against other initiatives, and choose whether and when to work on that project.  And you use your capacity and story sizing to manage expectations.  Which leads us to benefit #6:

6.  Politics are absent.

If you are making decisions based on quantitative results and you have a prioritized backlog, then there is no reason to make political decisions.  What’s the point?  You have the numbers, now go do your job.

7.  The bar is high.

You know how one mediocre project can take you forever to finish, but three challenging projects can sometimes energize you?  Agile sprints are more like the latter.  Sprints can be intense and challenging, and also satisfying.  Sometimes you can even point proudly to your results.  Why waste your days doing boring, mediocre work?

8.  The workday is intense and fast.

With all of that challenge, the Agile workday is short and intense.  Do you want to feel like you are always working, or like you have to hang out at work to show face time?  Work hard, play hard.

9.  Change is frequent.

We hold retrospectives frequently (timeboxed, of course).  With a commitment to changing what doesn’t work, we find ourselves altering our plans regularly, including deciding what to stop doing.  This is refreshing.  In Agile, you go along with the ride and breathe a lot, which is probably good practice for life.

10.  You’ll be smarter.

Future colleagues and partners will want to learn from you.  Your Agile skills will turn up in some unusual places.  You might start timeboxing how long you clean your kitchen.  You may choose to include words like ‘epic’ and ‘backlog’ in your everyday vocabulary.

But you also might do what I did and let go of some of your perfectionism, which has no place in Agile.  And, like me, you might pick up some better ways of structuring your work.

Most of all, you might really enjoy your days more.