Agile Changed My Life (eBook)

How to Manage the Chaos of Life and Career with Agility

D. Ray Freeman (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2014 | 1. Auflage
185 Seiten
Agile Consultant Guide, LLC (Verlag)
978-0-9862323-1-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Improve your health, career, and relationships with one simple system in D. Ray Freeman's engaging self-help debut, Agile Changed My Life. While Agile is technically a project-management method, Freeman has skillfully applied its basic principles and techniques to all areas of life. What does this mean for you? It means that, by using some of Agile's basic tenants, you can finally build your career and put your personal success on the fast track. Agile is a truly comprehensive system that can change your life for the better. So get started today, and experience the true potential of tomorrow.

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Are you feeling overwhelmed? Do you have a to-do list that never seems to get done? How would you like to establish a common understanding with the people around you so that you can function more cohesively as a team? Perhaps you want more out of life and are willing to do something about it. Then you've come to the right place! Discover a movement that is transforming the business and technology landscape. Agile gets things done. By focusing on people over processes, Agile has become the hottest trend in software development, reaching heights far beyond the IT industry. Some people are actually being Agile at home. But what the heck is Agile?Agile is a modern approach to project management used by businesses all over the world. Typically adopted by technology units, this workplace favorite has helped companies:- IMPROVE TEAMWORK- REDUCE COSTS- GROW REVENUE Agile even helps businesses respond to corporate change. But Freeman has adapted the key elements of Agile for home use. The result is a revolutionary approach to personal development which incorporates the values and principles of Agile with everyday life. As a reader, you will discover some simple techniques to help you:- EARN MORE- LEARN MORE- ACHIEVE MORE Agile helps families communicate better and more often. Agile accelerates your success by teaching you to break down big goals into small chunks achievable in less time with more impact. With this book, you will have the same tool-set used by top companies around the globe-simple and customizable to your own environment. Being Agile can: - STRENGTHEN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS- INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY- ESTABLISH WORK AND HOME LIFE INTEGRATION Freeman shares personal stories that will inspire you to make the necessary adjustments in response to change; to view life as a project worth the extra effort of managing; to use nontraditional techniques to increase your abilities in whatever you wish to accomplish. This book contains a unique blend of motivation and brain-based strategies that promote:- FACE-TO-FACE COMMUNICATION- CAREER INDEPENDENCE - CONTINUOUS LEARNING AND SELF-IMPROVEMENTSuccessful people have a habit of doing things that make them successful. Agile can help you establish such habits. Suitable for beginners and experts alike, this book is your guide to incorporating the behaviors of successful people into various areas of your professional and personal life. Find out how Agile can change your life for the betterTODAY!

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Chapter 2

What the Heck is Agile?

Getting Familiar with Agile from Values to Principles

The principles we must universally accept are the recognition of our shared humanity, our shared aspiration to happiness, and the avoidance of suffering. From these principles, we can learn to appreciate the inextricable connections between our own well-being and that of others.

Together, they constitute an adequate basis for establishing ethical awareness and the cultivation of inner values. It is through such values that we gain a sense of connection with others and it is by moving beyond narrow self-interests, that we find meaning, purpose, and satisfaction in life.

—The Dalai Lama, Beyond Religion

iQoncept/shutterstock.com

Agile in the Software World

Agility is defined as the ability to move quickly and in a coordinated manner. An agile person is mentally acute and aware of self, situation, and environment. This is a fitting title for the software development methodology that bears this name. Being Agile is being efficient and effective; not being Agile is being lethargic and awkward. Speed and efficiency are the fundamentals of successful software development, as they allow companies to gain a competitive edge over their competitors. To keep up with rapid change in the technology world, companies establish procedures that can be repeated consistently.

In the past, all software development was approached sequentially with a set of procedures called “waterfall.” Large chunks of time were dedicated to defining the solution and capturing the intricacies of each requirement. Development, testing, and deployment were phased approaches. Each stage depended on the completion of its predecessor before it could start. All work was performed according to a strict set of requirements that were gathered, defined, and elaborated over several consecutive months.

For decades, this approach provided an effective way to build systems by first writing a full set of upfront specifications, but it was not so effective in providing incremental value. Nobody got a chance to see or benefit from any working pieces early on in the process. Change is inevitable. However, change is disruptive to the waterfall process; therefore, it was usually discouraged and unwelcome. A modification to scope would have to be traced and managed to avoid causing rework and confusion for those downstream.

The waterfall approach required more people, more time and was slower to deliver its return on investment. Although Agile-based methods are growing rapidly, waterfall still exist at many companies today. Part of the maturation of Agile teams is being able to coexist with other methods seamlessly.

Waterfall Methodology: the predecessor to Agile, waterfall breaks a project into stages:

• Requirements gathering
• Design
• Coding
• Testing

In a Waterfall process, each step must be completed before moving on to the next, and all steps in the process must be completed before any value is delivered to the customer. The name “waterfall” is comes from development process that literally flows from one stage to the next.

Agile Methodology: “Agile” is the umbrella term for iterative, incremental software development methodologies, including:

• Extreme Programming (XP)
• Scrum
• Crystal
• Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
• Lean
• Feature-Driven Development (FDD)

Agile methodologies arose in opposition to the traditional waterfall methodology. For the purposes of this book, we will focus on Scrum, which is the most widely used today. Agile emphasizes small teams delivering small increments of working software, with great frequency, while working in close collaboration with the customer and adapting to changing requirements.

Where Did Agile Come From?

In 2001, at a ski resort in Utah, seventeen independent thinkers came together to address the need for a non-documentation driven approach to software development. Kent Beck, Mike Beedle, Arie van Bennekum, Alistair Cockburn, Ward Cunningham, Martin Fowler, James Grenning, Jim Highsmith, Andrew Hunt, Ron Jeffries, Jon Kern, Brian Marick, Robert C. Martin, Steve Mellor, Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland and Dave Thomas were all present. Together, they devised a whole new approach to software development, one based on a set of core values and principles. It would be based on people instead of bureaucracy and would help answer the real questions of what people want and what can people deliver.

Founder Robert Martin made the resounding statement, “At the core, I believe Agile methodologists are really about the ‘mushy’ stuff—about delivering good products to customers by operating in an environment that does more than talk about ‘people as our most important asset’ but actually ‘acts’ as if people were the most important, and lose the word ‘asset.’”

The Agile movement was not readily adopted in the business world. It was seen as the rogue anti-methodology, shunned for its perceived lack of planning, documentation, and structure. But in fact, it was just the opposite. Agile evolved into a state of being, grounded by a philosophy that transcends software development and has benefits far beyond the workplace. The Agile Manifesto, available at www.agilemanifesto.org, was penned by the original founders on February 13, 2001. Since then, Agile has grown into many different frameworks, disciplines, and approaches, all based on this human-centric philosophy.

My Introduction to Agile

It’s a beautiful Friday afternoon here in the great state of Texas. The sun is shining bright, but I wouldn’t know it because I’m sitting at my desk, surrounded by gray cubicle walls. Like most consultants, my workspace is decorated the same way it was the day I got there: bare, with only the basic essentials to do my job. Karen, my boss, walks in.

With a loud thud, Karen drops two books on the desk in front of me. “I need you to do something,” she says with eyebrows raised.

In typical fashion, I open with a joke. “What can Brown do for you?”

We both have a good laugh, and she replies, “You can deliver!”

One of the books is titled Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application, by 37signals. The other is Agile Estimating and Planning, by Mike Cohn. “Ray, I need you to read these by next week. We’ve got a coach coming by to give us a hand.”

“A hand with what?” I reply with a confused expression.

“We’re going to bring in a new way to build software that’ll be faster and better than before—oh, and you’re gonna implement it.”

As a former waterfall project manager, I was first introduced to Agile in 2004. What began as an approach to software development eventually morphed into other uses of Agile inside and outside the office. I discovered that the same values and principles could be applied in my approach to career and life achievements in general. I began to apply elements of Agile into my own life. In other words, I became Agile.

Many practitioners of Agile have come to realize and accept this viewpoint. Being Agile has cultured and organized many areas of my professional and personal life. The benefits have been profound. Since becoming Agile, I’ve been able to refine and release new features of life more effectively. and I believe the same can happen for you. In fact, Agile can strengthen anyone’s ability to accomplish anything. People who work in Agile environments are equipped with a powerful set of tools to aid in the pursuit of success and happiness. Leaving these tools at work at the end of the day is an injustice to you and those who could benefit from a better you.

The Agile Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto is a set of values and principles adopted to uncover better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.

www.AgileManifesto.org

What Does It Mean to Be Agile?

Agile is composed of four values and twelve principles. Applying one or more of them, by definition, is being Agile. Doing more is more Agile. The approach’s original intention was to uncover better ways to develop software, but over time, Agile itself matured. It’s a process that makes sense and can help you make sense of things that don’t, especially when adapted for everyday situations you encounter.

Agile Value 1

• We Value Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools.

Agile professionals work closely with one another, usually in the same room and interacting with each other on a regular basis. This can be uncomfortable for “techies.” Most technical skills are expressed in front of a screen or book or when engaging in some other solitary activity. To comply with the first value of Agile, you have to get in touch with the social side of your brain.

It boils down to this: if you can communicate with people in a face-to-face conversation and establish a common understanding, you gain a lifelong skill that is beneficial to everything you do. Make an effort to understand and appreciate the intricacies of human interaction. Agile is more than a process or a set of tools; it’s a way of...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 7.12.2014
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Projektmanagement
• ISBN-10: 0-9862323-1-9 / 0986232319
• ISBN-13: 978-0-9862323-1-2 / 9780986232312