The London Fashion Week school of Agile

No, I've not actually lost it this time.

Bear with me.

We were chatting about Agile in the office and one of our colleagues made the observation that Agile is a bit like London Fashion Week. Somewhat timeley as it turns out it actually is London Fashion Week this week.

Now our Steve isn't one to follow the Jean Paul Gaultiers or Saint Laurens of this world. That said, I think I once saw him in a Ralph Lauren shirt. But it may have been bought for him.

But neither is he one to be obtuse.

I asked him to explain

Well, first of all both have a lingua franca all of their own. Superficially like the Queen's English, but sometimes opaque to the uninitiated. This can sometimes make it feel a little tribal to those on the outside. Practices, terminology, behaviours that you may need to be initiated in to. Now we are talking about Haute Couture / the purists of the Agile world here. Not your local Top Shop talking about Biscuit Beige or the people using the phrase "stand up" in place of "morning  prayers" or "daily management meeting".

But the key trait our Steve called out was the idea of wire frames and what they become. An idea, however outlandish or technically challenging, that eventually finds its way to the finished product in some shape or form. Maybe not exactly as the original idea, but recognisably related to it in concept.

In the fashion industry this might be the colour, the cut, the collar, or the hem, that on the catwalk seems novel, "now", a wow, and yet, unpractical, too revealing, and only for the thin and confident. Yet it trickles its way, a year or two later, in to mainstream fashion. A way of filtering the genius and making in to something real.

So Agile as London Fashion Week from our Steve.

Every day is a school day.