The IKEA kitchen starter kit is a wonderful invention: I need it when I move out of my parents‘ house and set up my first apartment of my own. In this case, it can really make my day: I can use my kitchen, even if I didn’t have a plan for it before.
However, if you really approach it without any prior knowledge of your own (that was the case for me), then the start will still be bumpy. But it still helps.
But what the starter kit can’t prevent is that I have no desire and/or talent and sooner or later end up with frozen pizza.
If I keep at it, I’ll hit the limits and have to get additional tools, pots, etc.
How does the starter kit fit with agile frameworks
I think this is a wonderful metaphor for frameworks.
When a team introduces Scrum, it is a good idea to do it „by the book“ in the first step – because only then Scrum can fulfill its function and uncover dysfunctions in the current work, i.e. create pain.
Analogously, however, the framework also becomes too rigid at some point, offering few options for further development. The best example of this is Spotify: starting with Scrum, a solid implementation of agile practices and agile mindset – and then the organization was ready to experiment further and evolve the principles and practices.
No blueprint to copy
Henrik Kniberg has published a snapshot of this evolution, and he never tires of emphasizing that it’s just that: a snapshot, not a fixed structure, nor a blueprint that can function unchanged outside of the Spotify environment.
Starting, learning, questioning
What are the most important lessons for me for a start with agile working?
- Start with adopting experiences, with the starter kit as with agile practices.
- Develop further and acquire a deeper insight into interrelationships. It sounds simple, but it’s pretty tricky: you have to understand a system in order to make sense of it
- Last but not least: you have to constantly question what was good enough yesterday.
