Maybe working for an agile focused organization casuses me to see agile applications everywhere…
It’s interesting to me how “agile” techniques applies to solving more problems than just software development. Last night I went to Green Drinks Chicago www.chicagogreendrinks.org . It was a networking event focused on sustainability. Not exactly a technology focused group in fact I didn’t meet anyone who was in software development. Mostly folks who are in or would like to be in green industries and some looky lu’s like me. There was a great panel discussing some research projects done on sustainable community development. About five projects in total one of which was on Sustainable Design.
As I was listening to their theories and case studies on this concept of sustainable design I couldn’t help but extrapolate the ideas to software development and vice versa. Here were some of the melded ideas I took away:
- Designing from the bottom up- collaborating with your constituents/community group is critical, solutions must be driven by their needs, willingness and involvement
- Understanding the needs, desires and motivations of your constituents
- Engaging them
- Execution that is powerful and affective
- The solution is all about the constituent
- Simplicity and feasibility
- Sharing the knowledge with your constituents so they don’t need to rely on you after you are gone (knowledge=ownership)
- Establishing metrics along with goals
- Solving problems yes, but creating opportunity
Change is hard and if you are in the business of making change (which I believe most of are) you need to learn what it is that motivates people to change and be prepared to help them do it in a way that works for them.
