How to apply agile development ideas to other work

Preface

I've been getting APP School teacher tangjunjian 《 How to become a master of time management 》 Course , Very inspired , Specially make study notes , I hope it can inspire you .

agile development

agile development （agile development） Is a very popular software development method , Programmers are generally familiar with . Simply put, agile development is the continuous delivery of working software projects through rapid iterations , Don't try to be perfect at one time , Pay attention to continuous and rapid iteration .

The core of agile development is to split a large project into several sub projects , Or split a large module into several small modules , Then small modules will be launched in batches , Small step run , Fast iteration , Each iteration is a complete software development cycle .

There are several advantages to doing so ：

• Fast delivery , So as to greatly reduce the cost .
  For example, a large project , You don't have to wait a few years for development before going online , Adopt an agile development approach , A simple function module can be launched in a few weeks , Let the customer use it first .

• Reduce the cost and risk of changing requirements .
  Customers' needs change frequently , Many times, customers don't know what their needs are , After a period of use , Will put forward more demands . Let customers use the software as early as possible , The customer's needs can be defined in the early stage of the project , If the requirements change , The cost of early revision is much lower than that of later revision , The boat is small and easy to turn around .

Agile development methods used in software development , I didn't expect it could be applied to our daily work .

Ways to improve work efficiency

In the course, Mr. Tang talked about several ways to improve work efficiency , Summarized below ：

One 、 Break the task down into specific actions

What is a mission ？

such as , Writing the end of the year is a task .

What is a specific action ？

such as , Call the customer ; Initiate a leave process , It's a concrete action .

As soon as you see the specific action , We'll know what to do .

But when you see the mission , We will be confused , I feel like I have nowhere to start , I don't know how to start , This is normal . Because this is a complex task , It's not just a single action .

We can split a task into specific actions , For example, writing a year-end summary can be divided into three actions ：

1. Job summary , Summarize what you have done in the past year , What achievements have you got ;
2. Capability inventory , What abilities have you improved in the past year ;
3. Next year's plan , The specific work arrangement for next year .

After this decomposition , We can easily start with the first move .

Two 、 Don't waste your time on hard work

Don't be a perfectionist

Except for some military industries 、 space flight 、 Medical and other high-precision industries , need 0 error . For ordinary workers , perfect , It's impossible. , It's also unnecessary . Once you really “ perfect ” Once , It is equivalent to raising the expectations of everyone around you . And next time you're just a little worse , People will be very disappointed .

meanwhile , Perfection comes at a price . Your time 、 The investment of energy , Put one only need to do 80 Things that can be divided , Did it 100 branch , This may take twice as long .

It seems that you are working very hard , But this effort , Maybe it's just a sacrifice of sevenoreight pieces 60 branch , And you don't have time to do things at the cost of . In this way, the overall output is much less .

Don't try to make something perfect , Lead to delayed delivery , After all, in theory, perfection does not exist , There is no best but better .

Completion is much more important than perfection .

Refuse “ Scope spread ”

Scope creep is doing something beyond your job responsibilities .

Many people like to be good people in the workplace , He was asked for help , In order not to offend each other , No matter whether it's your job or not, you always promise , The final result is often that the other party is satisfied , I haven't finished my work yet .

Before we do anything outside our job responsibilities , First of all, ask yourself if you have done your job well ？ without , Just say no .

Prevent rework

Rework means that a lot of work you have done before has been wasted , Will waste a lot of time , This situation should be avoided .

The reason for rework may be that you don't understand the user's needs , Or the customer's requirements change , The worst result is , When we have finished all the tasks , Only to find out that we made a mistake in the beginning , And then we have to push them all down and start over again .

This is very demoralizing , We should involve our customers in the project as soon as possible , Let the customer have a bottom in mind , Not that our generosity is mistaken .

So how to avoid the above three situations ？

3、 ... and 、 Agile working method

This requires agile working methods to save you , The core of agile working method is an iterative working method .

It does not advocate “ One step in place ”, It advocates constant adjustment 、 To adapt to , Step by step to achieve the goal .

Agile working methods include two main points ： Minimum deliverables and continuous iterations .

establish “ Minimum deliverable ” consciousness

Master agile working methods , First , You need to build a sense of delivery .

Agile working method is a good name , Take these two words apart , Easier to understand ：

Sensitive → Every time + writing , Each function is documented , Means delivery by function , Minimum delivery .
Agile → hand + go , Take over a project , To get rid of one , Flexible disposal , Never be overwhelmed by too many tasks , Continuous iteration .

This is the age of mental work , How much investment do you have , Only you know . You may have invested a lot of time and energy in a job , But if there is no action to deliver , In the eyes of others , You didn't do anything .

You work hard , The result only moved me . At this point you need the minimum delivery .

Why emphasize minimum delivery ？

This is because , The plan is not static . We often say that plans can't keep up with changes , A lot of time , Even if the boss , There's no way to do it 100% Look in one direction .

More time , Perhaps the demand side has not really figured out what it wants . If you only see your final output , He realized that his need was another thing , Then push it down and start again , Cause rework . that , Everyone's time is wasted .

Let's see , Is it because of rework that I work overtime ？

therefore , You just need one , In the early , The most elementary version that can be shown to the demand side . It should be able to hold hands , It is not too complicated . That is, the smallest deliverable 1.0 edition , It can help you identify the final requirements , Avoid spending your time in unnecessary places .

Minimum delivery is a powerful tool to solve the rework problem .

When planning the delivery node , My suggestion is to tighten the front and loosen the back .

Suppose one thing , If you have a month to prepare , I suggest the first week , Deliver your solution twice , For feedback and adjustment , After that, the weekly delivery rhythm can be maintained , This also leaves room for yourself .

therefore , When you receive a task or project , I would suggest that you , The first step is not to promise the other party when to deliver the final result , It's a promise of when to complete the first delivery .

such as , When you receive the assignment from the leader , A more agile answer is “ I'll start to prepare tomorrow morning , I will give you a preliminary feedback before leaving work ”, instead of “ The final plan will be given to you in two weeks ”.

Continuous iteration , Throw the monkey on your back

That's it “ Minimum deliverable ”, The next step is to seek feedback from the other party , And then iterate .

iteration , In layman's terms , It's better every time “ deliver ”.

Here is your feedback , It could be your boss , Your colleagues , It could be your client . You put 1.0 Give them the version , Then they give you feedback , You can improve it .

Deliver the work continuously , It is the key secret that we can handle multiple tasks at the same time .

Hand over the work , The other party needs to start absorbing 、 Feedback or processing . At this time , You can go to the next job with peace of mind .

The advantage of this is , One side , You have a steady stream of output . With your partner , Also always in a reasonable busy state . Instead of everyone waiting for your time , In case you hold your breath for a long time , The thing that comes out is not what they want , Many things have to be redone , And lead to rework , The overall efficiency will be dragged down by you .

On the other hand , Every time you are “ Just right ”, Your time has not been wasted .

A vivid metaphor is ：

One task at a time , It's like a monkey that keeps throwing it on your back . Smart workers , The reason why we can accomplish more things , Will not be worn out , The secret is , He can always pick up a new monkey , Throw out the other monkey on your back . On his back , There is always only one monkey , Otherwise it would have been crushed .

Take a look at the diagram of agile time management in the course ：

If you follow the general mechanical time management , Wait until one thing is done completely before moving on to the next . You should do the whole task well , Then give the results to the customer , We still have to wait for the customer's feedback , If the customer is not satisfied , It has to be revised , Then confirm with the customer . Wait until this task is completely completed before proceeding to the next human task , The task is serial .

And agile time management , Minimum delivery is used , We make a 1.0 First show the version to the customer , You can start the next thing while waiting for the customer's feedback . Although so many tasks are carried out at the same time , But not in parallel , Like a single core CUP Can perform multiple tasks at the same time , Actually CUP Is to quickly switch tasks in the background , We just can't feel it .

We're going to throw the monkey on our back out first , To pick up a monkey , At the same time, we should ensure that there is only one monkey on our back .

in addition , When facing multiple projects at the same time , I have a lesson ：

Iterate over important things , The urgent thing should be iterated first .

such as , After a month , You will attend an important company level event and give a speech ; Two days later , You should give a training to the employees in the Department . Importance , Of course, the company level activities are more than the training within the Department . In terms of urgency , But just the opposite . Whatever you do first , I always think of another one in my heart .

Iterate over important things , The principle of first iteration for urgent matters , You can put the most urgent internal training materials first , Make a 1.0 edition , Send it out to listen to other people's feedback on this version .

Then put it aside , Start making every effort to make the company speech 1.0 edition . Because after all, there is still a month to go , Then you can use the feedback from the leaders , Slowly iterate to 3.0 Even 10.0.

Department training , In the end, it may only iterate to 2.0 edition , But because it's not that important ,2.0 That's enough .

Last

It's important to note that , Agile working method , Do not advocate “ Do more than one thing at the same time ”.

For most of us ordinary people , It is impossible to do multiple tasks simultaneously in a small amount of time , The human brain is like a monocyte CPU, Only one thing can be done at a time .

Deal with multiple things at the same time , Just like your computer , Five Web pages were opened at the same time 、 six PPT、 Seven Word, Your computer can't run faster .

Although agile results , It seems that many projects are advancing at the same time , But in fact, you are putting different versions of different projects , Constantly deliver , There is still only one task left .

Efficient people , Although it seems very busy , But they are always just doing one thing .