The virtues of agile - focus

This is the last of our series of articles about the virtues of Agile.  This week, we cover the topic of focus.

Countless leadership books and seminars have said that focus is one of the most critical skills a person or group can have if they want to succeed.  My favorite book on the subject incorporates science fiction into this scholarship.  For a software developer, focus is the critical component of getting work done because it requires a tremendous amount of concentration to create software.  So, of all the agile virtues, why have I saved focus for last?

I firmly believe that focus occurs when the other four agile virtues are practiced.  I feel that it is not possible to have focus unless your teams have the courage to get the job done, respect each other and outsiders, are open to new ideas and challenges, and have the commitment to getting the job done.  The other four virtues act as lenses that generate the focus necessary to achieve goals.

This is easier said than done.  Today, a person faces more distractions and obstacles to focus onthan any other period in contemporary business.  E-mail, instant messages, social media, and endless meetings seem to tug and pull at us like evil seagulls looking for a snack.  Add to the mix the office politics that accompanies an organization, and you have a toxic stew of distractions.

This is why I like the scrum process so much.  A developer or scrum master can concentrate on a fixed goal for a fixed period.  It is easy to tell someone asking for additional features to say, “…that is a great idea. We will put it into the backlog, and then we can discuss it during sprint planning.”  Requests for favors go away because developers who work for me direct those requests to the business owner and scrum master to prioritize.  This cuts down on “me too!” development, which doesn’t add value but adds complexity to the project.

I am also discovering that focus needs to be reinforced on the team.  A scrum master should always say the project's overall goal and how meeting sprint goals is just another landmark along the way.  A scrum master also should keep meetings to a minimum so that people who work under him or her can concentrate on what it takes to get the job done.  Finally, as a leader, the scrum master should pick and stick with a few attainable goals.  This should create a focus for the rest of the team.  If this strategy is good enough for the Secretary of the Navy , it is good enough for me.

It is easy to write about scrum.  It is much harder actually to do it in the real world.  I hope this series has allowed you to reflect on the virtues of Agile and how to use them in the real world. I look forward to sharing my acquired wisdom in the New Year.

Have a safe and sane New Year.