When we introduce scrum to team, we faced with a question from the team like "How can i develop software without completely freezing the big picture?". The presentation is about what I understood as Agile in our life check it out.

1. Am I Agile?
– An introspection of our life
Presented By: Albert Arul Prakash
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 1

2. Dilemma when moving to Agile
Developer Test engineer Architect Technical Writer
How can I How can I test How can I How can I
develop the software design a system document a
software when when all without an system when all I
I don’t have features are not understanding get are small
the complete developed? of its complete chunks in each
requirement? scope? sprint?
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 2

3. The underlying anxiety
• How can I create something by seeing the dots, when I
don’t know what I’m expected to create at the end?
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 3

4. • I introspected on the
path that I took to reach
a true understanding of
Agile.
• I realized that
– our life itself does not
follow the waterfall model
– humans have always been
Agilists who have
practiced Agile method of
living every single day.
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 4

5. Let’s Begin
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 5

6. During Infancy days
• we always take baby steps to achieve
our goals.
– We never take long steps that might make
us fall.
• Also the first baby step takes at least 7
months.
• we are all provided with just- in- time
requirements like
– turning over to one side
– dragging ourselves forward
– sitting up, crawling
– Standing
– and then finally taking that first step
• We never had a requirement that we
needed to run like Ben Johnson! Or do
we?
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 6

7. During Infancy days
• Requirement is
– a single baby step
– leading then to few more steps at a time without
holding on to anything, walking steadily, and
finally running.
• Isn’t the each stage is complete/testable in
itself.
• The requirements evolve as we (the product)
evolves, and we commit and do it.
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 7

8. School (K-12) days
• At school we still continue in
the iterative mode when it
comes to studies.
– First we read/learn for the
monthly portion
– We collate all three month’s
learning for quarterly exams
– Then we continuously expand
our knowledge by studying
more chapters
– We collate 6 month’s learning
for doing a half-yearly exam
– We add more value by adding
another 6 sprints (of 1 month
duration) for our final exams.
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 8

9. School days
• None of us
– studied for final exams
from day one.
– learnt everything in a
single go
– Committed to the
requirement that is un-
manageable by
ourselves.
– Had a fixed product
backlog irrespective of
the feedback received
from stake holders
(teachers and parents)
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 9

10. School days
• We continuously
– take the requirement
that is to be completed
as monthly sprints
– integrate with our
previous sprint work and
validate them regularly
– follow our own ways to
solve the problems that
are ahead of us.
– move ahead by solving
complex problems using
simple solutions which
might get changed based
on added value
(knowledge).
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 10

11. Adult hood
• As we move into college and
adulthood, we follow a similar pattern
– in our personal life,
– in trying various ways and means to
be attractive to the opposite sex
– try and impress the one who has
impressed us.
• We may not always succeed, but we do
add our experiences to the knowledge
pool
• We constantly refactor ourselves to
make things work and achieve an
agreeable romantic life.
• Thus from infancy to adulthood, we
take one stage of life at a time, trying
to achieve what is required to the
best of our ability.
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 11

12. Let’s introspect our career now
• As soon as we join the work
army,
– we stop being Agile.
– We want a situation where
someone commits a
deliverable on our behalf.
– we hardwire our brain with a
thoughts that
• we will follow what our leaders
say
• they are better people in
committing for us.
• they will find ways to solve a
problem
• we don’t need to use all the
values that we achieved though
all these years.
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 12

13. Time to break the illusion
• Are we not following agile in our career
progression?
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 13

14. Time to break the illusion
• Answer is
we do follow AGILE.
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 14

15. Time to break the illusion
• None of us
– became architect
from our freshman
year in any software
company.
Do you remember how
hard we worked during
our software engineer
life to get that senior
software engineer role?
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 15

16. Time to break the illusion
• We followed agile in our
career by
– taking one step at a time
to achieve our career
goals.
– Marching ahead by
adding new goal once
we achieve current goal
– adding more value
continuously by evolving
our knowledge and way
of solving a problem.
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 16

17. Time to break the illusion
• But we are the same people who are now
asking
– how can I develop software that has a product
backlog that changes constantly
– how can I develop product without knowing its
full system design.
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 17

18. But I want you to ask yourself a
question now.
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 18

19. Am I Agile?
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 19

20. Presented By:
Albert Arul Prakash
albertarulprakash@gmail.com
Connect @
• http://www.linkedin.com/in/albertarulprakash
• http://www.scrumalliance.org/profiles/75425-albert-arul-prakash-rajendran
• https://www.facebook.com/albertarulprakash
• https://twitter.com/bepenfriends
• https://plus.google.com/101433668966009443790
© 2012 AgileCafe.in 20