What is Agile? Agile Explained... with a PENCIL!

I recently introduced my children to this game...played this growing up in india...we used it call it rocket!

battleship vs speedboat

How do you charge the customer in Agile way of project development?

I take an example from Sports itself. You are having a lovely day of cricket and chasing a good total. You are in front seat, plan is to keep run rate up without thinking about wickets much. but then you see black clouds coming in and you have to adapt to new condition. Now, you need to look after your wickets along with score as per DL method assessment.

Powerful content, presentation, and delivery. Thanks a lot, Gary. Your voice is amazing.

I appreciate these videos I used JIRA on my IT team at Bank of America like 2 years ago and I need to refresh myself for an interview I have. Thanks again

Thank you for this amazing and easy explanation!

Mr., great explanation, We Latinos say: "Clearer doesn't sing a rooster"

5 min save my life with struggling with agile, great and easy explanation.

Like explanation :)

brilliant analogy!!! Congrats!

Very nicely explained 👍👍

Brilliant analogy Gary.

My analogy is that Agile is like a pistol hitting the target more than once with small bullets (demos) until the centre is hit (or the target shatters) and Waterfall is a rocket launcher which MIGHT hit the target in 1 shot, but may also miss and blow up the back of the military base (it may however hit the target and waste less time). Not sure if its good, but please tell me! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Lego’s
You can build small working pieces, those can be added to other pieces, you can add pieces to strengthen what you’ve already built and remove other pieces not needed or that are cumbersome and replace them with more ‘agile’ pieces to finish your build.

I’m new to agile. This is my day one.

This is a "trivial" analogy - which makes it absolutely SPLENDID 👏
Sometimes it's hard to describe agile's advantages to someone who doesn't have the agile mindset.
I'm going to use this analogy in the future, thank you!

Agile is an awesome perspective to have. If only companies would stop thinking agile is this rigid process that ends up burdening everyone with so much more work.

No better explanation online!! Good job

Yes liked it!

Best explanation ever. It's still good in 2021

Agile is a joke. For every 8 meetings I go to atleast 6 could have been covered in an email. The scrum coach is a useless position. They are literally just professional nags. Atleast actual managers have the authority to arrange solutions to blockers. The most a scrum coach does is insist on making it a subtask in jira.

How do you eat an elephant? Using Agile: One bite at a time!

Best and too realistic explanation 😀

Canny good like!

Such a simple, beautiful example. Thanks!!

Great explanation, but I think I'll stick to the Mythical Man Month approach. 😂. But seriously, I feel like this methodology is something that IT Teams and Engineers are already doing in one way or another. I don't understand why we have to name it Agile or anything for that matter.

Ok, so as I watched this I was reminded of my time as a surface warfare office in the US Navy. Ship navigation is completely an agile approach! You have wind, currents and tides constantly taking you off coarse. You take hourly or at a minimum 4 hour positions using a variety of means and plot the coordinates on the navigation chart. Are you where you expect/want to be? Usually not...change course, change speed, etc. and take another position fix in an hour and see where you are on the chart. Keep doing this until you arrive at the planned destination!

Best definition !!!!!!

Awesome metaphor.

Amazing presentation

Genuine analogy!

Great video and analogy. The only comment I would make is that I kind of disagree when you say that for each stroke we get value because there is value only when you score a goal. Other than that I love the part on risks etc.
The analogy I use is vacations:
The waterfall way is using a pre-packaged tour. Everything is set at the beginning and even if things are not going as planned, there is very little possibility to adapt. So if you, as a customer, want to spend less time or more time somewhere, if it is raining during a planned outdoor activity, if, if, if... then well you might end up not being a satisfied customer.
The agile way, you set a vision: destination, type of vacation (sports, cultural, beach, ...) and you fix your time and budget. You prioritise for the beginning of your trip the things you don't want to miss, your must haves. You may end up not doing everything you wanted to do, you may end up doing things you had not planned because once you are there you will adapt depending on what you see (not just what you had read). Your satisfaction of your vacations is not dependent on if you have done everything you had in mind before the trip (it does not depend on achieving the whole scope). And everything you do during your vacation is value delivered.

To this software lad enamoured of agile
Comes advice from an old programmer nearly senile

To the sport of rugby belongs scrum
Not software and that into you I will always drum

Remember, software from agile tends to be buggy & fragile !

Great analogy. I am trying to get into a project management career so am getting up to speed on these things. Liked the moment I saw St James'!!! Cheers!

@Gary brief your educational and professional side. From where did you learn these?

To briefly show what the agile method is all about, we will use a simple example. Since we live in a country near the frontline (in Poland), we can use a comparison to military rockets.
Let's assume that the waterfall method is an ordinary unguided rocket. Before we launch the rocket, we need to designate the target of the attack. We calculate flight trajectories and make appropriate corrections related to wind strength and air humidity. Once we launch the rocket, there's nothing we can do. If the target of the attack moves a few meters, the rocket will miss the target. If anti-aircraft missiles appear, the rocket will be knocked down because it is incapable of evading the attack.

Now it's time for agile, in our example it's a cruise missile. Before launching the rocket, the operator sets its target. After launch, the missile begins to maneuver, avoiding enemy air defenses. The rocket sometimes flies in a completely different direction than the indicated target, then returns to the correct course. The operator constantly sees the enemy target in the direction of which our clever projectile is flying. It may turn out that during the flight of the missile, the operator will see another, more attractive target and will direct the already flying missile there.

Wow, what an analogy!...

Thank you, I finally get it!

if you can teach it to a 10 year old, only then you know the concept properly. This is a masterclass

Thank you very much. This is so simple to catch up and not waste any second.

Great explanation!

256th comment. Perfect 2^8. Woo Hoo! Yes, agile is a response to uncertainty in design. It is sold as a method of certainty for management. Salaried employees (no overtime) work fixed, predictable calendar schedules (and therefore budgets) and produce predictable results. Mangers can put checkmarks in the schedule and budget checkboxes. Employees "commit" to finishing on time as the buy-in for doing the work. Copious amounts of overtime are expected before missing a schedule. A Product Owner oversees the process to make sure than business interests are primary. If work expands to fill all available time, then time can be shrunk to get any amount of work done. Theoretically. I suppose piece rate garment workers are the analogy. You get paid per piece no matter how much time it takes, handkerchief or wedding gown.

Agile is demonstrated in full in the game of soccer. the team can shoot the ball overtime they have it straight at kickoff towards the opposing goal, with an AIM to score a goal. they can decide to play to score with small increments by kicking the ball around and making progress down the field to the opposing half, breaking their defence and scoring a goal. they coach can course correct on strategies, make changes by substituting players, until the game is over. this is my analogy of AGILE that i think may easily resonate with soccer loving fans in the our field or profession.

SIMPLE, U WON A SUB

This was an awesome analogy. Love it

Your pencil-football analogy hit the nail on its head. Great work!!

This was great! Thank you so much!

Grab a pad. Grab a pencil. You're armed and ready... to demonstrate AGILE!