God Bless Sports and Business

Did you realize that Agile (aka SCRUM) project flow was inspired by the game of rugby?

Having had an uncle who played rugby, I had a "feeling" based on childhood memories of muddy shirts in the wash on Sunday, but now I know for sure. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(development) 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(rugby)

If you need it conveniently earmarked:

In 1986, Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka described a new tactic that would increase speed and flexibility at the cost of design and quality....^[1] They called this the holistic or rugby approach, as the whole process is performed by one cross-functional group across multiple overlapping phases, where the group "tries to go the distance as a unit, passing the ball back and forth".^[1]

In 1991, DeGrace and Stahl first referred to this as the scrum^[2] In rugby, a scrum refers to the manner of restarting the game after a minor infraction. In the early 1990s, Ken Schwaber used what would become Scrum at his company, Advanced Development Methods, and Jeff Sutherland, with John Scumniotales and Jeff McKenna, came up with a similar approach at Easel Corporation, and were the first to refer to it using the single word Scrum.^[3]

Although the word is not an acronym, some companies implementing the process have been known to spell it with capital letters as SCRUM. This may be due to one of Ken Schwaber’s early papers, which capitalized SCRUM in the title.^[6] 

(Isn't if funny how things get carved in stone?)

What is fascinating to me about the idea of being Agile in Creating is the issue of how much planning and how much do I hold myself to my plan.

Do I plan my work and work my plan to be successful? When might I scrap an idea, call it no good and choose another path?

Even Executive Coaching and Professional Coaching of all specialities have roots deep in good ol' sports coaching. We have early football coaches whose sole goals included keeping the team as group and individuals Motivated and Inspired to produce the best work.

Just last week at the Weekly Writer's Support Group I facilitate, our resident Project Manager-at-Large, Karl Cosgrove, was energetically debating Agile and Scrum asking if it was not simply a buzz word of the hour. And then along a comes a conference in Seattle and a workshop on the Eastside to give me a place to get my questions answered.

What does today's blog post invite you to do? Check out an right on the heels of the Agile Pacific Northwest Conference! And consider the history of Agile and ask yourself in what ways could you benefit from understanding the principles.

I'm feeling productivity and conscensus and better relating in the air already.

And as a champion for Meaningful Communication - written, spoken, improvised through dance!, I'm deeply curious. Where does Agile fit into how we develop ourselves. Period.

I look forward to a healthy debate on Friday as I will be in attendance! Here is hoping you may be too.

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