Agile for kids/family

[Darren Dirt]

Never even thought of this.

http://agileandfamily.blogspot.ca/2012/02/what-is-it-about-agile-and-kanban-that.html

cool idea. Can't hurt to try (for my domestic situation anyway -- bad at getting the kids to get stuff done around the house and/or their homework, get decent sleep etc.) (bad parent feeling guilty) (likes brackets too much) (avoiding actual work @ work I guess*)


http://agileandfamily.blogspot.ca/p/agile-kids-book.html
http://www.swiftkanban.com/kanban/1-what-is-kanban.html
http://www.swiftkanban.com/kanban/42-what-is-kanban-board.html
http://www.swiftkanban.com/kanban/41-what-is-scrumban.html




* (or maybe I'm simply out of ENERGY i.e. feeling "exhausted, emotionally depleted, unfocused, and lacking purpose ... disengaged" -- and I need to refresh/recharge more, and more often)

[Mr. Analog]

Oddly enough Kanban works really well for chores / home projects. Get a whiteboard and some sticky notes or use a Kanban site

I think daily family standups works as well, when I was a kid we used dinner time sort of the same way (what's everybody doing, is anybody having issues, etc)

[Thorin]

It's less about what system you use and more about sticking to it.  We've tried several systems to get everyone to pitch in here but after a few days or a week enforcement stops and everyone goes back to their lazy selves.

[Mr. Analog]

That's true, I've seen the same thing in IT as well, things get rough and people fall back into bad habits.

At some point a team needs to address it and get back into good habits and start fresh again. Sadly, momentum doesn't drive itself (FU Newton!) and sometimes it takes substantial energy up front to bring things back on track.

[Tom]

So don't stop enforcement that soon? noone gets used to a change that big after only a few days or a week.

[Lazybones]

So don't stop enforcement that soon? noone gets used to a change that big after only a few days or a week.

MUCH longer:

http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/hbrc/2012/06/29/busting-the-21-days-habit-formation-myth/

The bottom line is: stay strong. 21 days is a myth; habit formation typically takes longer than that. The best estimate is 66 days, but it?s unwise to attempt to assign a number to this process. The duration of habit formation is likely to differ depending on who you are and what you are trying to do. As long as you continue doing your new healthy behaviour consistently in a given situation, a habit will form. But you will probably have to persevere beyond January 21st.

[Mr. Analog]

That's for sure

The key tenets for both agile and scrum are all about building good habits

There's a reason why you have daily stand up at the same time every day, the same reason you set sprint limits and produce reviews. It's all about making a framework that sets the foundation to work from and grow good habits.

[Thorin]

Yeah, it's not just under my control.  I have in the past tried to be the parent that enforces the rules, but then the other parent doesn't and I end up the bad guy that everyone hates.  So I pick my battles.  Someday they'll have all moved out and I'll have carved out my own space that is tidy, and there'll be only the two of us creating mess so it'll be easier to jump on and clean up.

[Tom]

I have a very hard time with habit forming. Some habits come easy, and are hard to get rid of. Others are incredibly time consuming, and even if I have programmed them in over the long term, a major mood flip or change in routines on my part will make all of those habits go away. poof. gone. and I have to spend a long time working on building them again.

It's been like that since I was a child. I think I first noticed it when I was living in sherwood park back in the day related to teeth brushing.

If something changes my schedule/routines, its a big hit. And mood changes are the largest contributor to that. I get depressed and all hell breaks loose schedule/routine wise, and there goes all of my routine based habits.

[Mr. Analog]

The hard part is forming good habits around the things we don't like to do, ironically that's why it's so important to keep working at it.

It's harder when you are alone and you don't have someone to help push things along. Turns out it's tough to kick your own butt in gear (remarkably easy to blame yourself when things don't get done though! haha)

[Lazybones]

Yeah, it's not just under my control.  I have in the past tried to be the parent that enforces the rules, but then the other parent doesn't and I end up the bad guy that everyone hates.  So I pick my battles.  Someday they'll have all moved out and I'll have carved out my own space that is tidy, and there'll be only the two of us creating mess so it'll be easier to jump on and clean up.

Ya unless both parents are following the same plan, change isn't possible.

[Darren Dirt]

That's true, I've seen the same thing in IT as well, things get rough and people fall back into bad habits.

At some point a team needs to address it and get back into good habits and start fresh again. Sadly, momentum doesn't drive itself (FU Newton!) and sometimes it takes substantial energy up front to bring things back on track.

Agreed, RESULTS drive results -- when someone is forced to follow a "new way" of doing things, their chance of sticking with it is increased GREATLY if that new way actually does do things better than their current (often "special to just them") way. If they get the same results, or better results, with this new way, they might even be willing to overlook a vastly different kind of THINKING required to follow the new process (until soon it becomes second nature). [Hey look, I am accidentally saying pretty much what I said about Windows 7 when I first started using it ... now that I have figured out how to use Windows 8 "fast enough" for most of my tasks I have accepted its different ways where they are strengths/better, and avoid those that are weaknesses/worse!]

[Mr. Analog]

It's true, and if you drive yourself to use a process that forces you to track results, as agile does, you start to see the value.

I remember waterfall quite vividly and in general the result was "survival" to the next project. I couldn't see myself doing that for 20+ years, I'd either go insane or just become a "Wally"

[Thorin]

It's true, and if you drive yourself to use a process that forces you to track results, as agile does, you start to see the value.

I remember waterfall quite vividly and in general the result was "survival" to the next project. I couldn't see myself doing that for 20+ years, I'd either go insane or just become a "Wally"

Or a Tim?

[Mr. Analog]

It's true, and if you drive yourself to use a process that forces you to track results, as agile does, you start to see the value.

I remember waterfall quite vividly and in general the result was "survival" to the next project. I couldn't see myself doing that for 20+ years, I'd either go insane or just become a "Wally"

Or a Tim?

Wally is somewhat likeable...