Slap! I felt the unexpected sting on my wrist. Right then I knew the other swimmer had veered into my lane. Except it really wasn’t “my lane” anymore. Moments ago he had asked (and I agreed) to swim next to me. So technically it was our lane. I grit my teeth as I came back the other direction, watching his body swerve all over the place, as if a drunk man fell into the water. “Why can’t he stay on his side? How am I supposed to swim next to this guy?” I thought to myself.
Funny things happen when you share space together. And yet, isn’t this part of Agile?
Agile is all about sharing and collaboration. “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.“ (see Manifesto for Agile Software Development). We coach teams to “swarm” over stories to get them to “done”. Collaboration spaces are set up to promote interaction between team members. Agile ceremonies foster conversations amongst engineering, business, and leadership. Big room planning brings people together from all across the value stream. Problems are discussed. Progress is made. Everyone’s pulling in the same direction!
Until you bump into someone in your lane. Wait, how could this happen in Agile?
Imagine asking:
- Business to partner with Engineering
- Product to prioritize their Top 10 Features
- Product to identify their MVP
- Managers to let their teams own their commitment
- Executives to be servant leaders
- Scrum Masters to protect their teams from VP’s (and other heavyweights)
- Teams to stop starting and start finishing
- Teams to be fully transparent on their progress
- Teams to unblock themselves by reaching out to external parties directly
- Engineers and testers to work together in harmony
- The organization to transform itself
If you’re smiling now, you get it: These situations are going to happen all the time in Agile.
Yes, we are all “sharing the lane” on this agile journey, and many of us are charted on a collision course.
But that can be a good thing. Perhaps we’ll have the patience to work through our differences. And the humility to learn something from each other. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll come together in a new, unexpected way.