Advice

My Personal Agile: Introduction

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

All right people, money where my mouth is time.  I’ve been talking to several friends and my girlfriend about my use of Agile methods (Scrum specifically) at home.  They’re curious, but they noted it’d be easier if I wrote this up.  Realizing I’m a writer I felt kind of dumb because, you know . . . I should have thought of it.

So guess what you’re going to see for the next few weeks?  That’s right – a detailed (but light) guide to my own Personal Agile system readable by normal humans.

Now let’s talk Agile, but first . . .

If You’ve Used Agile:

Don’t worry this isn’t fanatic or preachy stuff.  I come from an engineering and science background, bits and bytes and blood and guts.  I’m interested in results.

However I am big on learning and making good productivity part of everyday behavior.  That might get annoying.

You can probably skip the next section.

If You Haven’t Used Agile:

So what’s this Agile stuff?  Let’s go to a basic outline that is hopelessly minimizing everything but still useful.

  1. Formally or informally a lot of management and productivity has been top-town – orders, schedules, hierarchy, etc.  You get the idea – build a plan and follow it.  These days this is often called “Waterfall” but the basic idea’s been around for most of human history, and “Waterfall” as a concept is a comparatively recent invention.
  2. For a few decades at least (and informally throughout human history) people also have known this whole plan-it-then-try-it method doesn’t work.  Methods of alternate management and workflow have been developed.  Many are older than people realize, but were in specialized markets.  Look up the history of Kanban sometime.
  3. Software really seems to have blown the lid off of a need to find new ways to organize.  Software jacks all the problems of doing any task up to 11: it’s fast, it’s variable, it’s evolving.  A lot of methods to make software management and productivity work better evolved, and people started calling these collectively “Agile.”
  4. In 2001 a whole bunch of Agile people met at a resort to discuss this and produced the Agile Manifesto and the 12 principles, which are seriously worth reading.  This really consolidated and kicked off Agile practices – Agile had a Philosophy, and there was feedback between Philosophy and Methods.
  5. Since this time, people have been adapting various forms of Agile all over.

So that’s it.  People knew traditional management didn’t always work, software really revealed that and drove people to fix it, and from that emerged a more coherent philosophy that sent things into overdrive.

EXERCISE: Go to the Agile Manifesto and read it.  How do you apply (even if accidentally) the four core elements of it?

EXERCISE 2: Read the 12 Agile Principles.  Which make sense to you and which don’t.  Why?

Why Is Agile Different From Other Methods?

(Hey those of you who have used Agile?  You can keep reading now).

Here’s how I see Agile differing from other methods of getting organized that aren’t, well, Agile?

  1. Agile focuses near-obsessively on value and why you’re doing something.  As you may guess, Agile also helps you realize when something is stupid.
  2. Agile focuses on adaptability and responding to – even embracing – change.  This helps you get the most out of change, even when unwelcome.
  3. Agile is heavy on feedback and adjustment and review.  Improvement is baked in.
  4. Agile is about everyone involved practicing it.  This is why I think the Agile Manifesto is so important, it was a basis for people not just doing Agile but becoming Agile.

Cool, So What’s This Scrum Thing?

Scrum is one of the Agile Methodologies or Practices (I see people use the terms interchangeably).  It was my first encounter with Agile, and frankly I consider it and the older practice of Kanban (which I use parts of) to be the best stuff I’ve seen.  Yes, I’m biased.

At a high level, Scrum works like this:

  1. You keep a list of things you want to do in priority order.  That’s the Backlog.
  2. You set aside a block of time to do work, called a sprint.  This is often two weeks in software, but I use a month for myself since my life has a monthly cadence.
  3. Every sprint you look at your Backlog and take all the things you can do from the top down.  You do not skip an item unless it turns out something is more important.  Basically you take the most important things that you can do in that timeframe – that becomes your Sprint Backlog.
  4. You do the work and adjust and adapt.  Sometimes you find that there are issues, sometimes you find old work.  Sometimes you even find you have more time and grab more to do – off the top of the backlog.
  5. At the end of the sprint you figure out how you did, look over the backlog, and do it all again.

Scrum hits a sweet spot of “free-form” and “organized” for many.  You can predict work done more or less.  You know priorities.  If anything goes wrong you review every sprint and can navigate.  You also know what’s expected of you (or from yourself) in a timeframe.

You can probably see how this helps out.  When I implemented my own Personal Agile, which is mostly Scrum, I actually got everything done within the first 3/4 of the month.  I had a gain of 25% productivity – and I was already pretty productive using the Agile-sih “Getting Things Done” method (which is well worth reading up on).

EXERCISE: If you were more efficient – without overloading yourself – how much more do you think you’d get done?  Can you put a percent of gain you think you’d experience.

So What’s Coming Up?

Fine, you got the backstory.  Let’s get to the methods – next up we talk why things matter.

– Steve

 

A Writer’s Life: Experiments

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Remember my goal to write at least 24K words, probably 30K, this month?  Yeah, still having issues with trying to force myself.  The idea of giving myself space had helped, but I still felt like I was forcing myself.  This caused some analysis that you may find useful.

Why was I still feeling like I was forcing myself?  I didn’t have to go very deep to figure that out.

I felt like I had to do everything right.  Or that I had to get it perfect the first time.  I had the space, but was trying to get it right the first time.

That’s when I had another realization, fueled by my writing, my observations, and my agile practices.  All writing is an experiment.

We’d like to think writing is some kind of precise creation.  Perhaps its that we think of it physically, or that we have a perfect idea of what we’re writing in our head.  But it’s not, it never is.

Writing is an amazingly experimental thing because it’s about communications.  Even if your audience isn’t there, you’re directing your communications to reach them.  In turn, the process of creating cause you to constantly re-evaluate and navigate, from reader feedback to reading your own words from the audience viewpoint.

Writing is experimental thing because it’s so huge.  When you are writing you have infinite options of what to do or how to communicate.  You only discover what works as you write, and writing may reveal unforeseen options.

Writing is experimental because it involves imagination in many cases.  That’s always unpredictable, that’s the point.

So you write something.  Experiment done.  Then you edit it, another experiment, and it evolves.  Then when you’re done, you go to another piece of writing – and that’s an experiment.  It’s experiments all the way down.

Once I realized everything I was doing was an experiment, that I had to explore and play, then I felt better about writing.  The goal of an experiment is to try something and all writing – indeed all arts – are just trying something.  Vast, unpredictable, evolving, channeling our imagination – and that’s why they’re so powerful.

My friend Serdar, a consummate experimenter, never even writes in the same setting, to keep himself going.  I never quite got why he might want to do that (which is not my cup of tea), until realized writing is an experiment.  The more you have, the more that push you, the more you grow.

Me, I like to play in the same settings, but I do explore elsewhere.  That’s how you keep growing.

So, onward to my goal of writing more.  Because I give myself space, because it’s an experiment, I feel a lot freer now.

 

– Steve

In Praise Of Your Crappy Book

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(With NaNoWriMo coming up, let me give you a bit of a boost)

So you wrote a book. You self-published it or may self-publish it. It’s just that, down deep, you think it’s kind of crappy. Guess what, I don’t care if it’s crappy – it may indeed be crappy. I want you to know why this is great.

First, let me note that it’s probably not as bad as you think. The ability to see our work as awful is a blessing and a curse to writers, but I oft find writers suffer from low self-esteem over egomania. We just notice the egomaniacs who think their crap is brilliant as they stand out.

So, now that you have this manuscript you’re vaguely disappointed in, perhaps even published, let’s talk about what’s great about it.

What’s Generally Awesome:

  • It’s done. You can move on to your next project.
  • You managed to actually write a book – kudos. That alone shows a level of strength, talent, commitment, obsession, or lack of self-control that’s commendable. Many people couldn’t do this – you could.
  • You learned you care enough to get a book done. If you have that passion that puts you ahead of people who never try.
  • You can always publish under a pseudonym. In some cases this is the best idea depending on subject matter.
  • At least the book is committed to history. You are a historical snapshot and people may learn from your experiences.
  • You learned more about self-publishing in general, and perhaps the publishing industry from your research. You can use that later or in other projects.

Technical Skills:

  • You learned how to better use writing tools like word processors to get this far. That can help you in your next book or other projects.
  • You learned how to use formatting options and/or self-publishing tools to get the book ready for publishing. You can use that for other projects or in everyday life.
  • You learned how to use publishing services like CreateSpace or Lulu. You can use it again or teach others.
  • You learned how to make a cover for your book, or buy one.  Sure the cover may be bad, but it’s something.

Writing Skills

  • You learned a lot about writing. Yes, the book may not be good, but it is at least coherent enough for people to understand. You managed to figure out how to make that happen.
  • You developed some kind of writing system and tested it – even if it was randomly flailing. You can build on that (or if your method was bad, discard it).
  • You (hopefully) get some feedback. Be it from pre-readers or editors or readers, you’ve got feedback or have the chance to get some. It may not be good, but it’s a chance to grow.
  • You learned just how publishing works, from issues of ISBNs to royalty-free photos. That’s knowledge you can use in future books and elsewhere.
  • You learned about genres from writing within one, from comparing yourself to others, from researching. This can inform your next book, your sequel, your rewrite, or just provide helpful tips for others.

Personality And Habits

  • You developed enough courage to finish and perhaps publish it. It might not be under your name, it may be flawed, but it takes a certain level of character to complete a work. You have it or developed it.
  • You learned a lot about your hopes, fears, abilities, and personality doing this. It might not have been pleasant, but you learned it
  • You learned how you write as you completed the book; do you write well alone, at a coffee shop, etc. You can use this for your next project.

People:

  • You meet people along the way. It may be an editor, a cover artist, a fellow author, someone thank thinks your work is awful. Some of these folks are people you can grow with, who can help you grow – and whom you can help grow.
  • You (hopefully) discovered writer communities along the way, or at least hard more about them. Those are people who can help you next time, be supportive, be friends, or point you at interesting work to read.
  • It may not be good, but how many of us were inspired by not-good things that had some good stuff? Your work might be a stepping stone for others.

The Future:

  • You can at some point rewrite the book and do it right. What if it’s really a glorified rough draft you can revisit when you’re more talented.
  • At some point you can take your book off of your website or out of bookstores or whatever (if self-published). If you’re truly worried, there are options there (and you still enjoy many benefits)
  • You can do a sequel to address the flaws of your work and improve as an author. I’m sure we all know series where the first (or second) book was not the best of all of them.
  • You could always decide the book should be free and let others build on it.
  • Maybe the book would be better as something else – a game, a comic, etc. Now that it’s done perhaps it can be reborn in a better form.

So your book sucks.  But you have a book, and that’s awesome!

(Remember I do all sorts of books on creativity to help you out!)

– Steve