Those of us in the IT field are all too aware of the latest buzzwords and trends in how we do business. Lean and Agile frameworks have been ALL THE RAGE within the last 10 years, with a major boom taking place in the public and private sectors within the last 4. And with Agile Evangelists being the latest hot title, many of us who are passionate about this productive process sometimes forget that it's not just a process to practice at work.
I for one have learned to utilize Agile methodologies at home. Maybe I'm just a nerd, or maybe I'm on to something brilliant. **shameless self proclamation there**
How have I used Agile at home you ask? Walk with me through this journey of chaos and I'll show you how Agile has literally 'leaned' out my life.
The Project: Life
Living life is literally a string of projects that we pretend are prioritized but are often procrastinated on. One of those "projects" I've experienced recently was painting my house.
For over six years I've lived in a white-walled-townhome, devoid of character and charm until one magical day in 2014 I decided to paint my downstairs yellow. Literally. My entire main floor is yellow. (I promise it looks much better than it sounds)
I went from one extreme to another and luckily I came out alive and a new passion was born. Painting had become my new 'thing' outside of work and I went a little crazy with it. At least until the thrill was gone **BB King Voice**. I managed to paint my entire main floor and out determined desperation to have a magazine model of a home, I proceeded to paint swatch after swatch in my upstairs quarters. Unable to finalize a decision on color, I decided to "live" with the swatches for a couple of days. By couple of days, I do mean 2-3 days at the most. Now at 739 days later I still am "living" with the swatches.
By definition, if this were a professional project and I were the manager I'd likely be out of a job, as my project would be grossly over schedule. And unsurprisingly, the quality of product would fall FAR short of expectation.
But that all changed when the light bulb illuminated and my enlightened inner Scrum Master kicked me in the butt. I can run my paint job as though it were a real job. With sprints, and stories, and metrics. Being accountable mostly to myself, what better person to be satisfied with my performance? So I set out on creating a project, complete with roadmap, deadline, budget, scope, and team-member, aka, good friend for help.
With a 4 week project time, broken down into 4 1-week sprints, and a daily check-in, I managed to keep myself on target and on task by implementing basic Agile project management principles at home. I'm currently in Sprint 1 of the project, where I rummage through hardware store color cards to find the closest color to the one in my dreams. By Friday I expect to have a finalized selection for which I will narrow down three colors. Let's hope the before and after pictures are well worth the wait.
There really is a reason why people are raving over this process. Besides it making sense and it makes dollars. It actually help you save money on your bottom line, both for your business and for your own.
How have you used Agile outside of work to help make your life a little more organized?