(2018-08-07) Blomstrom You Cant Have Wow Without The Wot

Duena Blomstrom: You can't have WOW without the WOT. Agile is not project management or software development, agile is a transformative new way of looking at how we do things. All the things.

This bit should be immensely self explanatory considering the Agile manifesto but all too often it isn’t. Using the supporting software and practices that Agile uses simply for the sake of ticking a box, in lieu as a means to support a thought pattern, is ludicrous but sadly widely spread.

Collaboration, empathy, good will, purpose, they are all in-built in understanding that to make all the intended greatness happen, this is the fastest and most organised way.

Let’s go back to basics, the Agile Manifesto’s values are:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools AKA “People First”
• Working software over comprehensive documentation AKA “Making things”
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation AKA “Empathy and Purpose”
• Responding to change over following a plan AKA “Flexibility and Acuity”

For all my eternal moaning against acronyms these are two I hold dear- WOT – Way of Thinking and the sine qua non condition to the WOW – Way of Work that Agile heralds. Having seen the wasted potential that comes from trying to gain one without altering the other, we’re adamant “You can’t have WOW without the WOT” and we repeat this ad nausea

Which brings us to the crux of the issue. TRUST.