Have you ever painted a bathroom?
How does painting a bathroom relate to Agile?
There are so many odd shaped items in that room; Twists, turns, things that stick up and out, outlets, light switches, medicine cabinet, towel racks, toilet paper holders….
When you think about the easiest way to complete the work, a couple of things come to mind.
- Pay someone
- Toss a paint bomb and hope
- Leave all the speckles and call it art
The option that produces the best outcome however (is not on that list), it is to prep with precision and exactness before you even open the paint can. Some might call that planning! It is indeed the most time intensive route. The result is a well painted room and very little cleanup left to call the task complete and get to washing off the brushes..
Planning to paint a bathroom means prepping the area. This activity makes sure you are aware of the things that will trip you up, and allows confidence that when you are done there are not too many messes or touch ups to do. Looking at the negative space around where you taped, masked, covered and seeing what is left is what needs to receive the paint.
Let’s consider some of the other planning activities.
- Do you need a specific brush to reach behind the toilet tank?
- Does your shower have tile all the way to the ceiling or do you need a long pole to reach that area?
- Did you get enough paint?
- Did you get the correct color paint?
- Did you get the correct type of paint? Do bathrooms need eggshell or high gloss?
- Does your fan work?
- Do you have a back up bathroom to use while this one is being painted?
Confirming you have all the information that you can know today is vital to your success.
Take a minute or longer and ponder your next steps. Breathe and take some quality time to think about all the possible paths forward. The best paths and the worst endings.
- Should you tape the towel rack or simply remove it from the wall?
- What about the light plate, should it also be painted and then what about the switch itself?
- Will your towels match the new color palette? (the humanity!!!)
This activity reminds me of planning an Iteration for a Software Team that is running Scrum.
Sure, an engineer can just grab a story and start coding, (envision the paint bomb in the bathroom here),
The option that produces the best outcome is to prep with precision and exactness before you even type 1 line of code. It is indeed the most time intensive. The result can be well crafted output, compilable and mergeable code, successful automated test suites and a happy customer. The best of all the outcomes.
Spending time with your teammates, cross functional and the like, allows everyone to be able to understand the desired result and definition of done.
- What does this story mean?
- Is there enough information to understand the ask?
- Are there supporting stories or work needed?
- Can we estimate the work?
Confirming you have all the information that you can know today is vital to your success.
Take a minute or longer and ponder your next steps. Breath and take some quality time to think about all the possible paths forward. The best paths and the worst endings.
- Who needs cross training?
- Where will the bottle neck be?
- Which teams are dependencies or are dependent on us for this?
- What documentation will be required to deliver this?
- Does the testing team have capacity for this?
- Is the sponsor or SME available for questions?
- Is there anyone else working on the same code base/area?
It might feel tedious, but when you get to “the good stuff,” it’s quicker. Pre-work consisting of conversations and collaboration can uncover unknown unknowns and help you pick the best possible solution. You are solving the most correct version of the request possible. You have the information to have the right people involved, the code compiled and merged in the best possible light and deploying to production is easier!
Planning, it’s the new black!
Give it a try and see how it works for you!