I own a home which is close to a century old. As I engage in home renovation projects, I can’t help but see the parallels between home reno’s and large software projects. There are many things common to both. You will need to accept change, you will be surprised by something and, invariably, you will experience some turmoil. How you get through the challenges will be a testament to your agility.
In this blog, I’m using the traditional definition of agile. I am not suggesting that I use stand ups or bi-weekly team retrospectives in my individual home reno’s. I’m not referring to the ceremonies or roles but to the agile attitudes and approaches to work. For those readers who do not own an old house, let me back up and explain….
In an old-house renovation, no amount of planning will help. Until you take out your hammer and remove the old wall or sink, you have no idea what you are up against. I have come to expect 9 pre-steps for every undertaking. That is, I have come to expect 9 odd things I will have to do in order to make what looks, on the surface, to be a simple change. For example, I decided that I would remove one of the doors in my house and replace it with a French door to allow more light into a hallway. So far, this sounds easy enough. Buy a door. Remove old, put in new.
But, the door is a custom size. In fact, the door and the opening, when measured, were not even rectangular but they were narrower at the top than at the bottom. Add to this challenge the fact that the surrounding walls and trim are custom-treated bleached oak. Color-matching will be a feat of art. The door accessories would need to be refurbished, as new ones would not match the rest of the house. And, a shiny new door would make the battered surrounding trim look really rough so something would have to be done to minimize the contrast. A quick “throw in a new door” task has just grown to a real project. Anyone new to the distress inherent in reno’s may just throw up their hands in disgust and watch excerpts from “Money Pit” (a 1980’s film involving home renovation, raccoons, electrical fires, and other old-home disasters).
When you have embraced the Agile mindset, you measure the doorframe again. You may gulp or have a moment of fear. But then you check yourself and smile (“Ah, so it’s not a rectangle? ‘Looks like I can finally justify purchasing that new skill saw.”). A challenge is not the end, but it is an opportunity to adapt.
Perhaps, adaptation involved re-thinking the entire project. Check and frequently confirm your commitment to the end goal. Do I need a French door? If I remove the door altogether, I get more sunlight. But, no, the door has an added benefit of sound reduction, the project’s success is still measured by the installation of a door.
So, you plan. You adjust your expectations and, now knowing that you have a lot of learning and challenges with this small project (but you’re still committed to the brighter hallway outcome), you decide that you can chunk the tasks into smaller bits. This will help you feel a sense of accomplishment and not merely freeze up from being overwhelmed during the early stages.
The flow of work is important. You keep on task and keep moving toward the goal. You can’t afford to stop progress when there is a challenge. You would be at a complete stop, if you gave up the moment you discovered that the planned “buy a door” step wasn’t going to happen as originally envisioned. In the agile mindset, you never have all of your momentum bound to “original plans”.
Always gather information and keep informed. You’ll use this to make adjustments easier to deal with. You will need to cut the door (It isn’t many places that will accept a custom order that’s out of square. I know, I checked.), so you adapt your door sources to being solid wood frames. You might be able to stain the door – or you may have to fall back on experimenting with artistic paint treatments, so you also look for new doors that do not have pre-treated surfaces (keeping both stain and paint options open). While you start to get the door ready, you start to pull in the experts on color-matching. Keep things going and learn about challenges as early as you can – while you move. The bigger the project, the more tools and energy you will need to keep the work flowing and the more you need to communicate to adapt to environmental factors. With larger, integrated teams, the complexity builds – and Agile becomes the only way to keep things moving in the direction that you need it to go.
Being agile is being adaptable while still achieving your goals. Keep the momentum and work flowing. Keep your eyes open for opportunities, and remember to breathe when the unexpected challenges some at you. In the end, you’ll have something you can be proud of, and you’ll have new skills that can make the next project even more successful.
I’m enjoying the sunshine in my hallway.