Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools

What is Agile? Is Agile Scrum, Lean, or Kanban? The short answer is Yes and No. What a confusing answer I gave. Let me explain further. Scrum, Lean, and Kanban are types of Agile methodologies; however, using them does not make your project Agile. The essence of Agile lies in the Agile Manifesto. A project team that internalizes the Agile Manifesto is truly Agile, anything less is just Agile in the name. This article will discuss the first Agile Manifesto in depth.

Looking at the above Agile Manifesto, is your organization practicing the values on the left or right-hand side? Most organizations follow the values on the right-hand side which is the traditional practice and easier to execute. However, it is the values on the left that will help your organization to grow. Let's discuss each value in detail.

Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools. Projects are run by humans, not by machines. Humans have feelings and emotions, they can be either positive or negative. For instance, a project team run by highly motivated friends will definitely function better than unmotivated enemies. Many project teams go straight to the task at the onset, with the mindset of getting the work done as soon as possible. The project team started as a group of strangers and ended as a group of strangers. When you look back, all that you can remember was pain and struggle. Strangely, many people will say they are thankful for this painful journey and they have grown a lot however in their heart they wish they were never part of this team. I do not deny that you will learn something from this painful journey but this is negative learning. When similar projects come up, you will instinctively try to avoid being part of it.

The essence of this first value is making friends. Project team members should be friends instead of colleagues. In order to be friends, you need to have quality communication. Quality communication is face-to-face constructive conversations not a few paragraphs over email. The conversation can be both work and personal-related. In fact, I encourage team members to know each other on a personal level because this is how friendship functions. Friends will talk about interests and meet up outside of work. Friends will voluntarily help each other.

However, making friends in a work environment is very difficult. There are hierarchies, number of years of experience, titles, education level, etc that stop people from making friends in the work environment. Can you make friends with your superior? Yes, in an Agile environment. In an Agile team, there is no hierarchy, no boss and employee or project leader and member relationships. Every member plays an equally important role, working towards delivering a working product. So, start knowing your teammates on a personal level and have quality face-to-face conversations.

Lastly, I wish to share about processes and tools. In every project, there will be many processes, the budget approval process, the feedback process, or the procurement process. Processes were supposed to make work smoother however many people have turned it into a blaming game. The manager will tell the applicant to look for the senior manager as he/she was the one who rejected the application. The senior manager will then ask the employee to look for the general manager as he/she was the one who rejected the application. They are pushing the blame to other people. Won't it be easier for all stakeholders to sit down and have a short conversation to clarify any doubts? Even a phone call would be better than just sending a rejection email.

Some people will tell you not to call them but to send them an email instead. After you have sent an email, there was no reply or the reply was unclear. You sent a follow-up email but it went into the black hole. Let us do it the Agile way! Walk to the person's desk and start a conversation. Start a video call with your teammates. Pick up the phone and make a call. Remember Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools. Start making friends by having quality conversations.

I will discuss the other Agile value in-depth in the following articles. Feel free to comment, like, and share this article.