The Agile Dinner Party – Epilogue: What was so ‘Agile’ about this story?

It was my intention to demonstrate how Agile principles are more universal than originally intended.?The “Agile Mindset” is not focused on software but rather on the customer.?If everything you do, if every decision you make, is focused on what is best for your customer, you have embraced Agile.?And you will have loyal customers for life.

How can you tell if you are really focused on your customers? Here is a simple test you can conduct.?Go look at your office calendar.?For every entry, ask yourself these questions:

·??????Does this help me provide value to my customers?

·??????What is my purpose at this meeting?

·??????Do I ever take any action items from these meetings?

·??????If I were not here, what more valuable work would I be doing?

You get the idea.?Now, let’s go back to the story and look at it considering the Agile Principles.?Note that I have changed references from software to a more generic term of ‘product’. Since a dinner party is pretty much a ‘one shot’ event, I’ve had to take some liberties.

Agile Principles

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable [product].

Hard to map this to a dinner party, but you can consider a anything that made the Chestmir’s more ‘at ease’.?This would include the planning effort, the samples of the tables, and the food tasting.

Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.

Dropping the nuts from the dessert was a simple but critically important change.?This was also a component of the Blindfold Game.

Deliver working [product] frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

Again, we go back to the food tasting and the table demonstration.

Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

The obvious examples are each time the Chestmir’s spoke directly to the students or teachers.?But the exchange between the principal and Mrs. LeMay represent another critical “Us versus Them” relationship.

Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need and trust them to get the job done.

All the students were volunteers, doing this for extra credit.?They all had a specialty at the school, with teacher support and interaction.?The Johnston’s were glad to assist.?Even the Chestmir’s were willing to support as able, including an almost unlimited budget.

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a [] team is face-to-face conversation.

Clearly, each time the Chestmir’s met with the school they had good interactions.?The Blindfold Game was all about interactions.

Perhaps the most unexpected example is the House Steward (Edward Niles) and the culinary teacher (Chef Irdap). Her overt and direct approach broke right through his stiff fa?ade!

Working [product] is the primary measure of progress.

Once more, since there is really only one shot at a dinner party, we return to the food samples and the table demonstrations.

Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

The only place this comes up is when the students complain about the extra work on top of their normal assignments.

Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

The obvious choice is the tables and how they had to recover after the collapse of a table. However, getting feedback on how the food tasted also resulted in adjustment to the recipes.

Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.

Jack tried to bring this up.?Instead, the students turned it into a chance to push work to others, like the estate staff.?Not what Agile intended!

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed these episodes.?More importantly, I hope you better understand Agile and that it can apply to whatever you are attempting to do.?Identify your customer then embrace their support and feedback throughout the process.?Become obsessed with exceeding their expectations.

And have fun.