Why - Why use Agile Patterns

Since Agile Patterns are simple, efficient, and engaging to the practitioners, they are very effective at their purpose, that is typically providing a desired, focused, well-define outcome.  Agile Patterns are better, faster, cheaper, and simpler than traditional solutions.  Agile Patterns are used for succinctly communicating ways of doing things in an Agile way.

DONE.

What - What is an Agile Pattern

A pattern is a discernible regularity in nature or in a man made-construct, or a cyclic repeatable sequence; e.g. template, model, stencil, tessellation, Mandelbrot fractal.

An agile pattern is a simple, repeatable construct that provides a simple solution to a common problem encountered by agile organizations; e.g. Agile Frameworks: Scrum, XP, Kanban, Lean, DSDM, xDD, xUP, SAFe, etc; Agile Practices: pair programming, open space, etc.

Agile Patterns can work independently, or in tandem with other Agile Patterns, or as part of Agile Framework, that has many sets and subsets of Agile Patterns.

DONE.

Which – Which is the seventh question

“Which” is the most fun, intriguing, and interesting of the seven questions.  And it seems the one everyone forgets. 

Asking “which” questions builds clarity by differentiating important details from unimportant details. 

If “which” questions cannot be answered on the spot, 

then they allow us to create meaningful follow-up actions and discussions. 

And “which” questions can be asked at any time: 

right at the start of creating an original idea, 

right up to the final close of a project.

“Which” is the question of free will.  

It reminds us of the choices we always have, but may not recognize.

DONE.

How – How to use the seven questions

Here is a brief overview of how to use the Seven Questions in proposing a new idea.

“what” questions get answers about things (tangibles), concepts (intangibles), and related activities

“why” questions get answers about motivations: reasons (historical causes) and purposes (future drivers)

“who” questions get answers about the people (individual human beings) and roles (characterizations individuals portray)

“when” questions get answers about time: dates (fixed or ranges) and schedules (sequences for events)

“where” questions, we get answers about places (physical) and locations (virtual)

“how” questions get answers about strategies (approaches to the problems) and methods (patterns for solving the problems)

“which” questions build clarity by differentiating important details from unimportant details in the other six questions.

Please note - the order of answering the questions is not inherently important.  But sometimes you may want to answer the questions in a specific sequence to foster a flow of the presented idea. 

DONE.

Who – Who needs the seven questions

There are two primary users of the seven questions

(1) Anyone who needs to organize her / his ideas into a meaningful proposal

(2) Anyone who needs to confirm a proposal is meaningful and comprehensive

The seven questions are an Agile tool for people to communicate in a structured fashion, which is simple and easy to remember – Seven Questions! 

DONE.

Where - Where to use the seven questions

The original intent for the Seven Questions was to present Agile Strategies for new ideas.  Yet over time, I have found them useful in other contexts.   For example, they can be used for proposals, agendas, interviews, presentations, training, discussions, kick-offs,questionnaires, surveys, etc.   At every engagement I find new ways to use the Seven Questions.   They just seem to be a good quick way to organize random thoughts into a simple well-formed strategy.

DONE.

When - When to Use the Seven Questions

There are two basic use cases for the seven questions.

First, use the seven questions as a framework to write an agile proposal.

Second, use the seven questions to verify the completeness

of an existing proposal prepared in a different framework.

And because the seven questions are comprehensive and easy to remember,

fundamentally they can be used as a checklist anytime with no preparation.

DONE.

Why - Why the seven questions

Agile Teams come up with ideas for new Products, Projects, Features, etc. 

Sometimes they need executive approval to work on such a new idea

- to get Budget, Staffing, Time, etc. 

Executives want a quick, simple, yet comprehensive proposal of such ideas.

The seven questions can be used to define an Agile proposal that is:

well-formed, quick, comprehensive, and still simple.  Because:

- there are only seven questions;

- they cover all the basics;

- and the seventh questions allows for any needed elaboration or clarification.

DONE.

What - What are the basic seven questions

While working with Scrum Teams I recommended limiting their idea proposals to the six common questions we learned in school:

Who,  What,  When,  Where,  Why,  How

Yet this approach seemed incomplete, inflexible, and limiting.   There always seemed to be a need for more details in some area.  Until one day I had an “aha moment”.   I uncovered the ‘Seventh Question’:

Which

DONE.

Which - Which posts are interesting

Periodically new themes will be started.
These will be labeled with "New".
You may want to read these to see if you may be interested.

This is the Last post of the "Start" series.
This series answered the basic seven questions:
who, what, why, when, where, how, and of course which.

The next theme is the "basic seven questions" - 7Q -
to explain them and propose some Agile applications.

DONE.

How - How are these posted

First, selected the overarching guiding theme - Simpler Agile.

Second, select a sub-theme or general topic, currently - introduce this blog.

Third, select a simple approach for presenting the sub-theme, currently - answer seven basic questions.

Fourth, write a short post for each element of the approach while foccusing on the sub-theme, currently - answer the "How" question.

Fifth, repeat from step two until ideas are exhausted.

DONE.

Where - Where is this blog

This is the simplest post - the blog is here at:
http://simpleragile.blogspot.com/

DONE.

When - When will new post appear

I plan to post between once per week and once per month on average.
The limitations are enough time, interesting topics, and available access.


DONE.

Why - Why this blog exists

I think too many people complicate or confuse ideas.

I also think it is much easier to present stream of consciousness thoughts, 
rather then distilling the essence of ideas.

Therefore, I will share my distilled insights so others can build on them.

I also will use this blog to build ideas into articles ... and eventually into a book.

DONE.

What - What this blog is

This blog presents Agile concepts, principles, and practices 
by simplifying them to their core elements.  

By design, it is short, specific, and terse.
It does not make any claims of correctness.  
It presents the views of its author (see Who).

DONE.

Who - Who I am

I am an Agile Coach.
I work with organizations who want a transformation into Agile Methods. 
I live in Palatine, a suburb of Chicago.
I work mostly in the US, but occasionally visit other countries.

I've blogged before and now return for a second round.

DONE.

Start - Everything starts sometime

My name is Paul I. Pazderski.
This is the start of my new blog - Simpler Agile.
The two driving topics are - "Simpler" and "Agile" (yes ... I know).

Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
(http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html)

Agile -- (computing) Of or relating to Agile software development, a technique for iterative and incremental development of software involving collaboration between teams. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/agile)

DONE.