What is a storm? When customers demand constant change, when the market takes new directions, when regulators demand more, when technology changes exponentially and when teams must adapt quickly. In this scenario the agilist (scrum master, RTE, coach, facilitator, agile leader or change agent) is the experienced navigator who guides the team to the safe harbour of successful product delivery and adaptability. With an agile compass and map, he or she charts the course, steers through the storm and ensures that all crew members work in harmony to achieve the goal.
A few years ago I got to know the Eisenhower matrix, MoSCoW, Pareto principle, critical path and others, but instead of a method I just use a principle that I describe as ‘first things first’. I close first during the day everything that has a fixed date and time, for example: Start the day with physical exercise, then start the working day and in the evenings hobbies. In this post, we’ll tackle the latter, the working day. I will take you on a journey through my day-to-day life as an agilist, sharing with you the main activities and lifehacks that make my work exciting.
My #FirstTheFixedFirst theory
During the first few minutes of the day I check WhatsApp at a high level looking for urgent messages that need to be adapted to some circumstance, for example: a massive incident in the applications, an urgent meeting or a team member’s problem.
First thing in the morning I start the #dailymeet with the team, a non-negotiable and quick event to establish the issues of the day. This is the shared space in which we ensure the presence of the whole team, we also use it to give various communications such as, for example: to remind that during the morning the applications will not be available or to remind that a colleague is going on holiday the following week. In this space we mark actionable of the day.
How to make teams achieve their goal
When there is an impediment, blocking or doubt in the team, we give priority to this and we focus on it until we close it or generate agreements, otherwise I open the agilist’s checklist that has all the events, documents and validations to be fulfilled to ensure that the teams meet their objective. This list also has the agreements and commitments to improve the team that we must ensure compliance.
In the afternoon I start the review of the emails, only in the afternoon? Yes, because the emails are usually standard requests and, when I am dealing with an incident, the focus and capacity is there. What happens if there is an urgent request in the emails and I don’t read it? This is the importance of the #dailymeet and WhatsApp.
In summary, I distribute the activities of the role as follows.
- Morning: Agile ceremonies, removing impediments, backlog management.
- Afternoon: Team protection, coaching, mentoring and continuous improvement.
Tips from a scrum master or agilist
Drink plenty of water, not only for the health benefits we know, but it forces you to take active breaks. That minute it takes you to go and fill up the bottle serves to take you out of the operative and try to enable the prefrontal medulla of the brain needed to tackle problems with innovation.
- North star, be clear about your vision and purpose in a visible way, e.g. a vision board as a screen saver on your laptop or mobile phone.
- Nomenclature, when saving files put the version and when creating folders use a number in front so that it is easier to remember the location.
- Be clear about the objective, I invest time in making the objective of the session clear.
- To avoid missing a meeting due to an incident, I schedule sessions in the afternoon.
- Have constant communication with a colleague, it will give you a different perspective on the situation.
My tools to improve project management
Just as computers have a RAM memory, like the brain has basal ganglia, I have a notepad that has that information very quickly accessible, for example: test data, credentials, templates and so on.
- Gemini as a second opinion AI sometimes gives you a basis and a starting point.
- Hanna is like having a coach who is focused on eEnterprise Agility.
- Using a drive to store files in the cloud and using favourites to store routes.
- Jira for visibility of activities.
- Miro as an operational tool
