Practical Applications of Agile in a Non-Software World: Part 1 of 4

In this four-part series, we’re exploring practical applications of the Agile software development methodology in a non-software world. For those unfamiliar, Agile is a way of working. A way of thinking. It emphasizes the importance of maximizing output by minimizing input (think: efficiency). Moreover, it encourages constant learning—akin to applying the scientific method to question, learn, and iterate on a problem. It allows a team to focus by committing to a set of work in a given timeframe (e.g., one or two weeks), which minimizes distractions, allows them to deliver value faster, and enables them to start on the next block of prioritized work more quickly.?

Pause. There’s an important phrase: ‘prioritized work.’?

Just because there are a million things to do doesn’t mean you can do them all! One of the core principles of Agile is generating, grooming, and prioritizing the work to be done (a backlog). Working on the right things—the things that make the biggest impact—is half the battle. And how do you know what those ‘right things’ are? Well, that all begins with an understanding of your vision, mission, and customer needs.?

Let’s take an example: We work for company X. I could tell you to go make 100 pizzas as quickly as possible to feed a crowd of hungry alpaca farmers, but if you don’t know what kind of pizza you’re supposed to make to satisfy them, are you going to be successful? What if they hate it? You’ll probably feel less invested in your job and never agree to make pizzas again. You might even decide to stop cooking altogether, fearing your skillsets are inadequate, and find yourself eating fast food for the rest of your life. Your health will surely decline, and our company will pay more for your health insurance over time as they raise the rates in response to your medical bills piling up. Jeez. Mood killer. How did we get here???

Success starts with questions.

What do the farmers want? When do they want it? Why? How do we know? Have we talked to them? Is it for themselves or to feed a community??

Ok we’re sure they want pizza. What kinds of pizza do they like? Could they possibly consume 100 pizzas or do they really only need 60? Do they have cultural preferences? Are there food allergies??

Oh, they prefer alpaca cheese, you say? Where should we source the ingredients? Do we have to milk the alpacas ourselves? Is someone available to train us on that? Do the pizzas all have to come out of the oven at the same time? Who has a big enough oven for that? Can we compromise and just order Papa John’s??

These would be some good clarification questions to ask.?

And I’m so glad you asked. Allow me to explain—we’re differentiating ourselves by creating our own, unique pizza brand with the vision of serving the best alpaca-cheese pizzas in the universe. Why? Because alpaca farmers told us their beloved animals make the best rich, salty, heavy cheese in the world (and in the universe for all we know, unless there is an undiscovered alpaca planet somewhere in the Cygnus A galaxy who has perfected the art of cheesemaking). NOTE: We’re specifically incorporating the universe in our company branding because alpaca farmers tend to enjoy stargazing and philosophical conversations in large, open fields.

And our strategy is to begin our company on this premise and grow into other niche markets over time, expanding our mission to focus on customer satisfaction in every segment: sheep-cheese pizza, goat-cheese pizza, buffalo-cheese pizza, or alpaca-cheese pizza.

Well, now we have that settled, we can get down to work.?

I digressed, but you get the point. Agile helps us understand what we’re doing, why, and for whom. Moreover, it celebrates failures as learnings and teaches us that we constantly have opportunities to iterate and improve—on our products (outputs) as much as our processes (the ways we get there).?

Traditionally, Agile is used in software development. If we were building a website, we would identify the customer needs and our business goals, define the features we can deliver to meet them, and prioritize in what order we’d build and release them based on our development team’s capacity. Obviously I’m oversimplifying. But my point with this article is, there are so many ways to incorporate Agile principles in an untraditional setting. In our pizza example, for instance, we could use Agile to discover the best way to organize ourselves for the fastest, best quality output.?

We might begin by producing only one pizza per minute because we’re inefficient in our assembly line. We learn you’re better at spreading sauce, and I’m better at spinning dough, so we smooth out the kinks and we accelerate to two pizzas per minute. Shit. Now we’re getting too fast and there’s a backlog in the cheese department. We pizza makers are twiddling our thumbs waiting for cheese. The cheese makers are pulling their hair out trying to deliver this critical component. The alpacas are silently chewing their grass and staring at us. The oven managers and pizza boxers are just laughing and posting about this on Instagram since they have so much free time down there at the end of the line.?

What’s that you say? Great idea! We’ll shift some of those underutilized people into an Emergency Cheese Team to ensure supply chain reliability. Plus, milking alpacas and turning it into cheese will give them some excellent creative content for social media. They'll become Instagram influencers, and we'll get free publicity. Everyone wins.?

Now we’re rolling. Because we’re agile. We didn’t stand there and point fingers while the hungry alpaca farmers glared at us with rumbling stomachs. We inspected our process. We adapted. We collaborated as a team. I love you, teammates. And the farmers love us too. Imagine their delighted smiles as they bite into that hot, tasty, alpaca-cheese pizza. Business is booming. #alpacacheeseplease

Keep an eye out for my upcoming article series over the next few weeks that will dive into three distinct examples of applying Agile principles in a non-software environment based on personal experiences and stories from friends. No, none of the stories are about alpacas. Nonetheless, I hope you’ll enjoy and share them so we can build our Agile mindsets together and inspire innovative ways of thinking in every industry, not just in technology.?

#noregrets?

P.S. I’ve never had alpaca cheese. But Google tells me it’s good.?

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