Agile Transistion - thoughts for the first steps

 

Agile is hype, agile is everywhere. - at least as theory. If the agile transistion ends shortly after the introduction of an agile team, then the transistion never took place. Coaching Agile Teams is getting people together - often from different departments. This is itself already a essential part of an transistion. Getting people together is not just sitting them into an room. Especially in the Corona time, when team members sit at home, the communication level is decreased to video communication if all have a webcam. Even worse, if the company does not provide webcams, the communication level is further decreased to only audio level. 

This is a really hard condition for a start. You can compensate this by investing way more time in team building. But why is this all necessary? For trust. If you trust you team, you will go beyond with the team. Trust is material which keeps your team together. In my opinion, if you have a team with average people an a high value of trust, they will beat a team with top people without trust. A team is more than the value of the seperate team members. This is the first milestone a new team should reach.

A new gadget

 

Today I replaced my loved Garmin Vivoactive HR with the Garmin Instinct Solar. On the hiking tour in August to the Priel with around 12 hours on tour, the Vivoactive run out of battery, I started my plan for replacement. The requirement was clear for me - I want a watch with enough battery capacity and similar functionality as I already have.

I started to look on the market and as I already had a Garmin watch and I were satisfied with all Garmin devices I owned, I set the focus on Garmin watches. 

The first research brought two results, the Fenix 6 solar and the Instinct Solar. The Fenix series is the non plus ultra and also the most expensive series. The Instinct costs less than the half but uses button for navigation and has less smart functionality. It was clear that I will not buy a watch via Internet without trying a prototype, so I look for offers in a local store and today I found the offer at Conrad. Of course, I looked several videos on Youtube and these strengthen my decision.

I went there and used the buttons and my decision was broken because of the "old-fashion" usability. Additionally, a sales guy came around and asked if he can support me and I summarized my requirements. He favored the Fenix series because this series has an extended battery capacity with and also without Solar. 

After taking a breath, I recapitulate my requirements - extended battery capacity. I do not need maps on my watch, same for Garmin Pay, music and colors. There is some missing functionality on the Instinct which I also did not have on the Vivoactive, but is this the price difference worth it? Or is it gold plating for feature I rarely or never use? That tighten my decision again and I gave the button navigation a chance and bought it.

On an Agile perspective, this was an interesting lesson learned. I thought I had a requirement and I had enough knowledge about the button usability. Finally, I nearly trapped to "overengineering" by buying the Fenix.

Imagine..

 you live in one of the richest countries of the world and you are unhappy with the system. Take some seconds to think about it. Is it really the system you are unhappy? What is the system? The system is everybody so you are also unhappy with the people around you and yourself. So why are you really unhappy? Maybe this is now a point, you are agitated and irritated. Most of the unhappiness is created in the daily life and saved for later like earnings on an account. Unhappiness decrease you productivity, creativity or better said your complete potential. Why do you not try to talk with somebody about your daily impediments and how to handle it? You will improve your life and improve your productivity. Sometimes this is not enough and you have to break you habits starting with a new project. Try to focus and use the positive energy and you will feel better and better. But beware, keep walking in small but continious steps. If you will pass this point and you think about the system, it is less worse than in the morning of the day.

Improvements in the daily life are the alpha and omega. It does not matter if you improve your tools or your processes, just do it.