Agile + Weight Loss = Success?
As someone who lost over 100 pounds and one who is also an Agile evangelist, when I think about what I did to lose weight, more often than not do I come to the conclusion that there is a relationship between losing weight and Agile. Confused? Hear me out…
Agile is most often defined as a methodology which relies on small increments of development to deliver business value or working software to the stakeholders. After each iteration, there would typically be some sort of retrospective to reflect on what went well and what didn’t go well, come up with a list of action items, and then determine how to improve going forward. There would then be a planning session, to set new goals for the next iteration or release. This is merely scratching the surface, but I think you get the idea.
Now, if you’ll recall in my Lessons Learned Part II post, I mentioned the importance of setting small goals and alluded to the fact that you can see what is working well and then set new goals accordingly.
This right here is Agile.
It never really occurred to me while I was doing it, but I set goals to deliver some sort of “business value”. In this case, rather than working software, the value was weight loss and a healthier body. Then, once I delivered that “value” in pounds, I would think about what went well and how I could do better before setting my next goal. Technically, I even had daily stand ups which were when I would weigh in to think about what I did the day before (in terms of food intake and exercise), and then plan out what I was doing that day in response.
I think this reinforces what everyone else and I say: set small goals!
No matter what it is, whether it’s weight loss or saving money to buy a house, you could use some sort of Agile methodology.
- Set a small goal,
- Mentally note what you did yesterday and what you’re doing today,
- Have personal retrospectives or inspect and adapt sessions to determine what went well and what didn’t
- Plan for what’s next
What are your thoughts? Have you ever thought of it this way, or am I just weird?
Until next time,
–Sean
One Reply to “Agile + Weight Loss = Success?”
Interesting post.
I recently renovated a rental property for my parents and used some Agile methodology.
I thought about using Jira but ended up using an analog notebook creating one epic per page, stories and then acceptance criteria. I found the AC was critical for controlling the urge to gold plate which could have impacted schedule. I found time boxes of 2 days worked for my project.
Using Agile was almost a necessity because the project seemed completely overwhelming at first.