Agile Living

or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Never Be “Done”

David Dylan Thomas

Content Strategist,EPAM

#AgileLiving

@movie_pundit

Nailed It!

What Is Agile?

Waterfall Agile

What Is Agile?

Waterfall• Assumes the outcome• Little check-in in between• Final delivery is the only

delivery

What Is Agile?

Agile• Assumes the goal• Frequent check-ins• Multiple deliveries before

final delivery

Why Is This Important?

“By putting the most serious planning at the beginning, with subsequent work derived from the plan, the waterfall method amounts to a pledge by all parties not to learn anything while doing the actual work.”

- Clay Shirky

Let’s back up for a sec…

This is a washing machine.

This is a washing machine.

Guess what it does?

This is Twitter.

This is Twitter.

Guess what it does?

Perpetual Beta

We are increasingly able to produce tech that behaves like the natural world

Neither is Wikipedia

The natural world is never finished

Neither is Twitter

Neither are you

“And it seems to me that that webby structure actually is a more accurate reflection of the

shape of knowledge: it’s an endless series of connected ideas and facts, limited by interest,

not an article that starts here and ends there. In fact, I’d say that Shakespeare himself was a

web, and so am I, and so are you.”

- David Weinberger

This is why perpetual beta doesn’t bother us

Because we’re used to seeing it in the natural world

Nature releases early and often

Your life is not a to-do list

There is no point at which you will be “done”

Your life is not waterfall Your life is agile

You Do Not Need to Master Anything

Agile Filmmaking

The perfect weight

The perfect job

The perfect mate

Great for narratives

Terrible for life

The phrase “Everything will be all right if…” should inspire profound skepticism.

Hedonic Adaptation

Lots of small wins > One big win

Agile gives you lots of small wins (even when you lose)

Knowledge = Power

Failure = Knowledge

Failure = Power!!!

“Reward success, celebrate failure, punish inaction.”

- Like, 50 people, apparently

Punishing failure is a guaranteed way to create a bureaucracy

Not everything is meant to be agile

How do we actually apply this?

Step One: The Backlog

Step Two: The Dashboard

Step Three: The Sprint

Step Four: Stand-Ups

Decision Fatigue

What am I going to do today?

Step Five: Retrospective

Bonus Step: Tie to Your Inbox

My Dirty Car

A Healthier Attitude

“Failure is not an option!”“We will try and we will learn.”

Questions?