products – Steven Savage

My Agile Life: The Project Doesn’t Matter

September 19, 2017 by Steven Savage

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s LinkedIn, and Steve’s Tumblr)

More on my use of “Agile” and Scrum in my life!

So this is going to sound weird, but one thing I realized in Agile practice, and my own use of the Agile technique of Scrum (with a touch of Kanban), is that the Project isn’t the most important thing.

Yes, I know, heresy. Projects are books, right? Projects are art, true? Projects are games, correct? I talk Projects all the time.

No. A book, a piece of art, a game is a product. Products deliver value to the customer and that’s what matters.

Projects are ways to get things done, to produce products, a useful conceptual tool, but that’s it. The idea of a Project helps you complete a Product that has value.

Yeah, let that sink in. All your planning, all your schemes, everything are secondary to the result. Think it’s hard for you? I’m a guy with a ton of certifications on the subject of Project Management. In short, I actually have certifications on the second most important thing.

Except this is liberating. I don’t have to take Projects seriously or any other organizational tool. All that matters is if this concept, this idea, this tool, this idea helps deliver value. That’s it.

This is where Agile as a mindset shines. It’s outright saying that your goal is a result. That’s it. Everything else is just a tool on the way to the result. You only have to care so much.

This is where Agile techniques shine, they’re tools to help you find blockages and get to the results – but like any tool you don’t have to be attached to them. Scrum this year becomes Kanban. This level of Project Breakdown is replaced by another.

I still use the term Project. It’s useful. I just don’t have to get invested in it. It’s all about results.

By the way if you’re focused on Projects and not results – why? Are the results even worth seeking?

(By the way I do plenty of books for coaching people to improve in various areas, which may also help you out!)

– Steve

Links of The Day 10/7/2013

October 7, 2013 by Steven Savage

Hardware has a long tail you may not have considered. Some pretty deep stuff here on hardware, long tail, and hobbyists that you should just READ.
Why do products fail? People don’t know what the hell they do. Worth reading and why “build what you want” can be a blessing and a curse depending on who you are and who you know.
Google released a quick HTML5 building tool for non-coders. May be worth checking out if you want to get a bit of web under your belt easily.
Blackberry’s future is software? I’d say “Duh” as they’re sort of the Sega of mobiles without the Hedgehog. This may revive them and save jobs or provide them, but I’d hold off getting contrarian with them.
A WB exec REALLY wants that Wonder Woman movie. Big danger is that they shoehorn one in and it fails. Contrarian view they throw some unexpected people at it and its a surprise. May I suggest Del Toro because Del Toro?

– Steven “User Friendly” Savage

The Personal Is Always Important

August 5, 2013 by Steven Savage

So Rob showed me RWBY, a CGI animated series that fuses video game and anime styles. It’s by Monty Oum, and thus has quite a pedigree. I found it enjoyable if needing fleshing out, and did enjoy the use of game stylings a great deal – there’s a very definite Suda 51 vibe that appeals to me.

But what was weird in watching this fan production by a fan favorite is that I found my reactions were odd. How was I to judge it considering its pedigree? Considering it’s audience-friendly involvements and previews? Considering it wasn’t from a big company?

It reminded me when I saw Pacific Rim, which is a giant love letter to mecha films (both military and super). I mean I knew I liked the idea of it, I like what I saw, but my reactions felt strange. On one level it was totally targeted at . . . well me. On the other I wanted to judge it as I would any film.

Then I thought about Rogue Legacy, which I noted “spoke” my language. It was also a personal experience, and one that made judging the game different because that was the very goal.

I was not judging these things based on artistic merits entirely. I was evaluating them in a series of contexts like who did them, focus on the audience. It was very personal. Oh sure there were merits I could note, but in many cases they came down to merits that existed in a personal/social context.