Editorial - How much for your attention?
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Attention, like time, is a limited resource. No matter what you do, you cannot spare more than 24 hours of your attention in a day. Now, what you focus your attention on during these 24 hours, will define the quality of life. Which, by the way, raises a pertinent question. What is a high quality life? It is a good segue and I could write for hours. But then my attention is limited and so is yours. So, to keep it short, you get to define what high quality life means for you.
Let's say you finish reading a book in four hours and to keep it simple, let's say that the book costs Rs. 400. This means that during those four hours, your attention cost Rs. 100 per hour. Now, let's say you are watching a movie for two hours and that movie cost you about Rs. 500. The cost of your attention during those two hours is Rs. 250 per hour.
This is the quantitative aspect of your attention. Then again, there is also a qualitative aspect of it. Time spent with your children at the swimming pool, a solo motorcycle ride, discussing philosophy and mythology with your father over a cup of tea, priceless…!
So far, I have only talked about how you spend your attention. How about how you invest your attention. When you study for an exam, focus to learn a new skill or roam to unwind (yes I call that an investment!). You can count how much you invest by calculating the return of attention (ROA) based on what you are trying to achieve with that attention.
Bottomline. Your attention is in limited supply and the corporations are out to get it. Facebook wants it, Google wants it, Television advertisements want it. Entire industries (film, media, social networking) are designed around it.
Question is, are you going to give it to them for nothing? Or are you going to make the best of it?
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Strategy - Agile - Purist or Pragmatist?
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Agile is a fantastic methodology for software development. But, while most companies do have IT organizations, not all companies develop software. Well there is the end user computing requirements where IT gives out laptops, desktops and devices that enable the business. But there is also other functions like buying commercially off the shelf software products and managing them, hosting them, decommissioning them, designing, implementing and maintaining infrastructure for them and so on and so forth.
The question is can we use agile in these functions? There are 12 principles of agile that define the method. That are the core foundation of the method. Perhaps we can tweak it to suit our needs. Perhaps we can use some of those principles. Perhaps all. Let's explore.
- Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software: Software? Maybe, maybe not. But early and continuous delivery of value? Sure. This can be done no matter what you are doing. I challenge you to give me a use case where it is absolutely not possible to do this. And this includes non-IT projects as well, such as re-designing your home interior.
- Welcome changing requirements, even late in the development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage: People are talking more and more about change, so I will save your attention and just say, that it doesn't matter what you do to earn your bread, if you cannot harness change, trust me, you are already out. Bye bye, gingerbread man...
- Deliver working software frequently from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale: We have covered this, in point 1, but I would still re-iterate, "working software" being the operative words here. Every time you deliver, it should be the minimum viable product. Just enough that your customer can do something with it. Any smaller and it would be useless. Again. Doesn't matter what business you are in, this works. There are concepts of "lean start-ups" which are based on this very principle. If you haven't heard, I recommend you look it up.
- Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project: What does your customer want? What are you doing on a daily basis to work towards the customer's goal? This is again not really about software development only. It is a general business principle.
- Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and the support they need and trust them to get the job done: How is this, just about software development?
- The most efficient and effective method of communication to and within the development team is face to face conversation: Elementary, my dear friend, elementary.
- Working software is primary measure of success: Replace "Working software" with "Value". Produce a whole bunch of documentation of what you did. But if what you deliver doesn't enable the business, it isn't done.
- Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely: Projects should be planned so you can deliver at a pace that is fast enough to keep you motivated and challenged, but slow enough so you don't die at the finish line. Specific to software development? I think not.
- Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility: Again this applies everywhere in every business or even personal endeavors.
- Simplicity - The art of maximizing the amount of work not done - is essential: Do only what you have to do right now. Be a minimalist. One of the biggest challenges that we face in life is we try to do too much. Agile simplicity is postpone all the work that you don't absolutely have to deliver right now. Focus on Just Barely Good Enough (JBGE). Again a life principle rather than a software development one.
- Best architectures, requirements and designs emerge from self-organizing teams: Don't micromanage your teams. Don't tell them who should be doing what. Give them a challenge and let them self-organize. Again more a leadership principle than a software development principle.
- At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly: Well what do you know... continuous improvement the cornerstone of growth.
That's it. That's the core of Agile. Now there are a lot of myths about agile methodologies and I can understand where they come from. Like:
- "you have to be co-located to follow Agile". And this myth comes from principle no. 6 (yes you are allowed to refer to the points above... :-).
- "you can't have any documentation if you are following Agile", which is derived from principle 7.
- "you can't have shared resources if you want to follow Agile", again derived from principle 11.
But if you look closely, these are derived interpretations of the principles and not really the facts. Are these interpretations wrong? Of course not. Not always. There sure is benefit in being co-located. But are we not Agile if we are not co-located? I wouldn't go that far.
You can follow the core principles of agile in any project. You can b e a purist by following the essence of the law rather than just focusing on the letter and build agility within your organization bottom up / top down and sideways. You can be a pragmatist by molding how you apply these principles in your context.
This is the beginning. Food for thought. If you have any ideas, I encourage you to write. I would love a discussion.
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Fitness - Fasting again... running again...
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I tried. I really did. But I am just not that guy.
This year I had decided that I will relax a bit. Enjoy. Have a little fun. I will try to be lazy and relaxed. I will try to let go a little easy on the workouts and the diets and the discipline of sleeping early and waking up early. And then I developed a paunch. Bigger than the usual, I mean.
I am happy when I am fit. I am happy when I am focused. I am happy when I am disciplined. I do not like binging, oversleeping and not knowing when to stop. Do I not d that? Of course I do, sometimes. but I don't like it all the time. And I especially don't like it if I arrive and heads don't turn. I love the attention and I love working for it.
So I am back to my tough schedule. I will run, I will train weights and I will practice intermittent fasting. I will cut that paunch quick and I will try to gain some weight too. I am already seeing results.
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And I am not writing this here to brag. This is just a to say, that once you have done it long enough, you won't be able to live with yourself if you go out of shape. I am writing this to inspire you. Practice healthy living until it becomes a part of your existence. Pick your thing, whether it is weight training, running, Yog, Zumba, Aerobics, Sports or whatever it is that you would prefer. But do it so long that you would hate yourself when you stop. Like brushing your teeth, or bathing.
I have been practicing workouts, disciplined diets and controlled sleep times for as long as I can remember. Five days a week, 9 months in a year. It started because I was too thin and wanted to impress girls during my adolescence and then I fell in love with how I feel when I workout. And so I practice the same healthy life today, decades later. All because, I don't like not having a goal, not obsessing over something, not working hard for it.
I am just not that guy.
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That's all folks...!
I hope you liked this issue. I always want this to be a two way conversation and I absolutely love it when readers write back. In fact, I would love to publish you on this if you would like to share your experiences, thoughts, ideas.
This is my personalized conversation with you. A creative way to stay in touch. And I don't want this to become spam for people who cannot relate to it. But do feel free to forward this if you think someone may benefit from it.
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