Basic Agile Execution Template

I propose a starting point for teams to begin their Agile journey, I believe this is a good place to start from but absolutely not a good end-goal. Teams should use this template and iterate on it until they have their own agile process that enables them to execute with peak throughput.

The primary design principle for this template is to maximize the amount of value a team can deliver during a "cycle" (e.g. a sprint), in other words, it maximizes for throughput, with the understanding that once a team starts applying it they'll find improvement opportunities for their particular domain.

The most important thing to remember while using this approach is that every decision and action that the team does should maximize throughput (amount value delivered over time).

By value I mean working software that helps stakeholders achieve a goal. If the software is not already helping the stakeholder(s) achieve their goal, then the team has NOT delivered value. The degree by which the software helps the stakeholder(s) achieve their goal(s) and how important that goal(s) determines how valuable the software is.

Dear Hardship,

Do you remember when you made it hard to walk? You taught me that not all pain comes from voluntary actions, yet I can find the strength in me to walk while in the company of pain.

Do you remember when you wouldn't let me sleep? So I could learn that the floor can be just as good a place to sleep as any bed, that pain can be pacified with meditation.

You're an eager teacher, looking for worthy students without discrimination, you embrace whomever finds you or stumbles unto you. In your eyes we're all equal and I love you for it.

Whenever I come knocking at your door, you open it for me, always ready to teach me a lesson, to remind me of my limits and how to surpass them, to remind me that everything I need to surpass my limits is within me.

You make every success that much sweeter, for nothing great is ever achieved without you, and knowing that only very few embrace you as part of themselves makes success all that much more unique.

If it weren't for you, I would not be able to climb high, for you are the mountain upon which I climb. If it weren't for you, I would not be able to learn, for you are the lesson from which I learn.

Software Goodness

The Ultimate Purpose of Software is to help somebody achieve a greater goal 1. The degree of Software Goodness of a piece of software is the degree to which the software realizes its ultimate purpose.

For example, software that helps 1M people learn algebra can be said to have greater Software Goodness 2 than another software that helps only 100 people learn algebra.

Note that people who benefit from software can be anyone impacted by the software, other software engineers, for example. If a library is a joy to use (due to its -ilities [readability, simplicity, robustness, etc]), then it can be said that it achieves greater Software Goodness than a library that is a pain to use (due to its lack of -ilities).

What drives a person to pursue Software Goodness?

I believe that what drives a peson to write software with a high degree of Goodness is that person's Care 3 4 for others and the greater goal the software is helping achieve.

Human Development

What is a Human?

We define a human by that which a human essentially is. Humans (like everything else in existence) are interactions of the universe happening here and now.

For example, a wave is an interaction of the ocean and it is the ocean, the ocean is an interaction of planet earth and also the earth, the earth is an interaction of the solar system and also the solar system, and so on, until we reach the Universe.

In the same fashion, a nail is an interaction of your body and it is also your body, your nail is you, because you are defined by all of you (nails included).

We can say that humans (just like everything else in this planet) are an interaction of the planet and we are also the planet, the solar system, the milky way galaxy, the constellation and the Universe.

In conclusion, we say that a Human is, essentially, an interaction of the Universe and is also the Universe itself expressing in the form of a Human.