AGILE – Change is the new constant

I am a hard-core practitioner of Agile, nah! I am just kidding ;-). I am a rookie who started working on an AGILE project. But mind it! I am great at hindsight, I thought AGILE process is exactly what it sounded like, flexible and quick. Guess what! I was bang on, it is exactly that.

Let’s talk a little geek for some time, we implement AGILE because our customers want substantial and visible results incrementally, in waterfall model, we take up a project and then deliver a product by the end of an year. With Agile, we keep delivering functionalities in increments. Our customers know what the product is like, what is the kind of development that’s happening, and what estimates are erroneous and what needs to changed or tweaked. Apply this to your day to day work, what if your boss comes and tells you that ’you didn't perform well last year and that’s exactly why you are getting a low increment’ - wouldn't is psyche you (to me, it would). Likewise, your customers get psyched when you deliver something - at the end of the year – and it’s something that they are not expecting. Now, how would you feel if your boss told you the same statement after some results were visible and you didn't do it that well, it would give you an opportunity to buck up and deliver better results….that’s exactly what we want our customers to do, give us constant feedback and help us deliver better our results. After all, nobody wants a low increment ;-).

Just get this in your head, with Agile, nothing is constant or should I say, Change is the new constant. The whole Agile process is flexible and expected to change, and there is a lot of collaboration and team work. Also, there are no surprises in the end of an year, it’s always that the customer get a product, give feedback and we work on the feedback. 

In the end, both are happy, the product and the customer…but I am not sure about the scrum team’s happiness ;-D.