Simplicity - is Essential.

Simplicity - the art of maximizing the amount of work not done - is essential. How many of us really understand the real meaning behind this Agile principle? There are many interpretations but the one which I like the most, is focused on Product Owners. 

I believe, POs have to play a role of an artist, a sculptor in fact. They need to visualize how the sculpture would look eventually and hence keep refining it. In our Product Refinement meetings, we often focus on 'adding' the details to the requirements, but miss out on 'refining' them first. 'Refine' as a word means to remove impurities or unwanted elements. I agree that by adding details we surely remove the ambiguity around the requirements, but we also need to ensure that the requirement isn't an 'unwanted element' for now. 

Therefore refining is an art where the PO needs to clearly separate the 'Must-Haves' from the 'Good-to-Haves', which we commonly refer to as the MoSCoW technique. These need to be put into two different buckets of what needs to be 'done' and what needs 'not done', right now. 

As a sculptor makes a wooden piece or a stone look beautiful by carefully carving out all the unnecessary details, a PO must learn the art of removing those unnecessary requirements which are not needed to build the minimal lovable product. Those requirements should be pushed into the 'not done' bucket, and hence knowing the art of maximizing the amount of work 'not done', becomes essential.

Honestly we can use this principle anywhere, especially during these COVID times, we can apply this to our eating habits. Lets try separating the stuff we eat into 'Must-Haves' and 'Good-to-Haves' and keep putting all the 'Good-to-Haves' into a 'not done' bucket.

I am sure this will not only help you develop a healthy eating habit, but also in reserving a stock which may not be 'essential' right now. Think about it and let me know your views.

Health check !

My friends often ask me how we can be prepared for responding well to changes, as emphasized in the Agile manifesto. Obviously, that requires a lot of homework in every possible area. One of those could be a health check. 

I am sure most of us would agree that in these difficult times, filled with stress and anxiety, we need to take extra care of our health. Any small issue could grow into a bigger problem, without us even realizing its existence. So what should we do ? Yoga, Pranayam or exercise ? Ya, answers could be many, but what matters is whether we are asking the right question. We may ask ourselves : -

• Am I free of pain ?
• Do I have high and sustained energy ?
• Do I rarely get sick ?
• Do I have low healthcare costs?
• Do I heal easily?
• Do I sleep soundly ?
• Is my immune system strong?
• Am I at my optimum weight ?

If we are able to say “Yes” to all these questions, then we certainly would call ourselves healthy and would be ready to respond to any change in the environment, affecting our health.

In a similar way, we need to keep our IT systems up and running i.e. healthy all the time. So I request you to go back to the first question and answer them with respect to your IT systems. Now If you are able to say “Yes” to all these questions, then you would certainly be prepared to respond to any big change coming your way. 

Ideally, at such times we only need to worry about creating the new planes, as such questions would ensure that the runway is functional, all the time.

The VUCA World

We often use the term 'VUCA', whenever we describe the attributes of today's world. During my training or discussions, I easily cite scenarios in product development which leads to 'Uncertainty', 'Complexity' or 'Ambiguity'. However, I sometimes struggle to give a relevant example for 'Volatility'. 

Though unfortunate, but this COVID-19 crisis perfectly showcases the volatile nature of this world. This was unexpected, we were caught off-guard and we even aren't sure of how long this will continue. Such are the times when we desperately try to work out a solution by experimenting, observing, quickly adapting as per the results, and that's what all governments have been doing.

For us in the IT world, we need to respond to this change fast, may be by changing the product strategy, investing more in R&D or hiring some additional talent. These steps might be expensive, but not taking one, might be more. We shall keep ourselves ready for the coming shift in consumer demand, once things return to normalcy. 

Looking at the positive side, I am hopeful that this would lead to a series of innovations and we would definitely have few good chapters in the Corona diaries, to be told to the future generation. Stay Home, Stay Safe, Keep Working.