Mukesh Tejwani

Before the ‘Agile Journey begins’, a general impression is that: Agile is a new Methodology used in Project Management of Software projects Agile is the “short-cut” to getting “Projects Done Faster” Agile is “Scrum” or a similar tool – Maybe a ScrumMaster certification makes

me ‘Agile’

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First Steps towards Agile

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• But, once we start the Agile Journey what we “See” is Agile is not a tool, but a “Behavior” that is built

around “Principles & Values” which are hidden in an intrinsic way in most People.

Agile is not a Methodology for Project Management, but it’s a “Mindset” for “Overall Management” that helps create “Optimum Value”

Agile is not a “Short-Cut”, it just focuses to show expected results “Faster” where the reality of ‘Change’ & ‘Ambiguity’ exists

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“Exploring” in the Agile Journey

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• While exploring agile Journey, the first steps automatically take you to an ‘Introspection’

Three quotes* in agile that help in this self-examination:• “Perfection is the enemy of good”

– (Questions that we need to ask ourselves – What do we ‘loose’ when we try to achieve perfection? Instead of - What do we ‘Gain’ while trying to achieve perfection?)

• “Known future is an illusion”– (We need to think about –What is the effort that we waste to make

things perfect for future, even though the truth of “Change and Ambiguity” will always hover around us)

• “We can’t think ourselves into a new way of acting…… we must act ourselves into a new way of thinking”– (Bringing agility is not about ‘acting agile’, its about making agile

behaviors as an intrinsic nature)* I don’t know who originally ‘quoted’ these, but these quotes are really helpful to understand the basic ‘soul’ of ‘agile management’

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What do we ‘Do’ once we have done a Self-examination

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……Start with 2 small stepsTry wearing a “Hat” that we might “Hesitate or Avoid” to wear

In a Agile class, an amazing Police Officer once said - For a Police Officer, a hat can change from ‘Responding to a call for controlling a barking dog in a neighborhood’ to ‘Collecting an evidence in a homicide’, the police officer has to be ready for both situations.

Agile Managers are like these ‘Police Officers’, who take ownership of any situation, when they ‘Respond’

Explore the new Mindset - Focus on “First things First” Whenever we start and move forward, ask yourself “What

would be that “JUST ONE” most important thing, if not done, will make my ‘customer’ unhappy?

The answer to this “High Performance Question” will always ensure ‘Focus’ on ‘First things First’

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Continuing the Agile journey…….

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The ‘First Few steps’ in Agile journey will make the “Thought Pendulum’ move to extremes

FROM“Being agile is good in thoughts, but not sure if it will work and is

sustainable”TO

“ This is awesome. Our lives will be so easy, if all of us in our professional world, from the Top Management to Middle

Management to Project Managers to Analysts to Developers” and even in our personal worlds would believe in the agile “Mindset”

………keep the journey going