Incremental Agility in life | Agile Story 16
Disclaimer: The article is an individual post and do not reflect the company’s opinions
** The agile delivery — Incrementally **
THE INCEPTION
“ Ting Tong…. Ting Tong “!!! The doorbell rings in a March evening of 2019 in a Delhi house.
“ Papa, Papa “ — The little 9-year-old Tanya ran towards the door as her hero, her father returned from Office like another Day. Shilpa opened the door and before Rohit can keep his belongings, the little princess jumped in joy and hugged her father.
Rohit said “ I need a shower, put the geyser on” with a secret smile in the corner of his lips. Shilpa realised that and asked with a typical wife’s attitude — “ How come you are in a good mood today?” Rohit quietly said, “ Need a coffee, will tell you “.
Keeping both mother and Daughter anxious for few minutes, he got settled in his sofa and by then the coffee was served.
“ Ahh!! The coffee is nice “ — He said. No reaction from anyone as they are eagerly waiting for the suspense to be unfolded.
“ We are going for a Holiday this Summer vacation and this time our destination will be the ‘heaven on earth’ — Kashmir !!!” — Rohit slowly revealed. Tanya was excited and thrilled and can’t stop expressing herself and gave both her parents a tight hug and started dancing on the floor. “ Careful, Careful beta “ said Shilpa to settle her daughter and asked her to complete her homework.
“ How come an expensive tour planned, what happened today?” asked Shilpa. Rohit was anticipating this and with a blush in his face he said “ Appraisal went very well. Good Bonus assured. Rohit assured and started to plan the trip.
THE PLANNING and DEV
Rohit happily started to explore the ticket options. With flight tickets beyond his budget, he started to explore Train ticket from Delhi to Srinagar but to his surprise all tickets in all classes were waitlisted.
“ Shilpa, Shilpa” he shouted. “ What happened tickets are not available right?” Shilpa said. Now Rohit was stunt to think how a wife can read our mind so easily, said “ Yes, all full” and Shilpa said “ Consult Bose uncle, our good neighbour from Railway “. Rohit was ecstatic and immediately picked his mobile.
“Hello Uncle, how are you?” “Good, how are you beta? How is our angel doing?” “Yaa she is fine Uncle. Ok listen, I need a small help. We are planning a trip to Kashmir this summer vacation; no tickets are available. Family is extremely excited about our trip and I can’t disappoint them. So, can you pls help us to confirm the tickets in VIP quota? Is that okay uncle?” “Hmm…When are you planning?” “May end Uncle.”
After a pause for few seconds Uncle Affirmed “ Yes you book in AC3, and I will get it done. Enjoy your trip!!”.
Rohit was just thrilled and thanked God for being so kind. He gave the good news to Shilpa and Tanya after getting the assurance from Bose uncle, and it seems their Vacation Plan is now ON.
With a sense of achievement Rohit then booked the hotels and sightseeing transportation based on his itinerary.
THE SIGN OFF for GO-LIVE
Finally, the day arrived when all packing were mostly done. Last minute stuff was being packed and of course the situation was spiced up with few arguments as the necessary things to be packed were not being found in excitement. Tanya was so happy with rays of expectations in her eyes to see the beautiful valleys, mountains and lakes of Kashmir. At last, Packing done, and they were all set to depart.
Rohit checked the PNR status on time and believe me — he was just not able to believe what he had seen. After two refreshes of the webpage, the ticket status was still shown as not confirmed, and it was like ‘the earth stopped rotating’ or ‘lightening on his head’ feeling. He just sat on his Sofa agonisingly.
Shilpa understood that there is something wrong so did Tanya. “ What happened Papa”? Rohit can’t even look at her eyes due to the sadness and fear of not meeting the expectation. He just looked at Shilpa and nodded his head east-west. Heart Broken. Now Rohit was not sure how to explain this to his princess but said, “ Baby, give me 5 mins!! “
“Hello Bose Uncle?” “Yes, Rohit beta.” “What Beta … our tickets not got confirmed and with your assurance I have planned my trip. Do you understand what you have done? My family is very upset.”
“Rohit beta…listen…hello…hello…”. Hanged up.
Now, with a deep breath and settling the adrenalin flow, Rohit called the hotel and transport and postponed the booking till October during Diwali Vacation to ensure no loss on his investments.
He took his daughter on his lap and said “ Beta the train had a technical issue while coming to the station and we will not be going to Kashmir now, but we will go there in October. Okay?”
“ Leave me alone, let me go…” was the first reaction from her daughter but he held her tight and said, “ October is best season and you can enjoy the beautiful mountains even more and take some very good photos and do horse riding.” Slowly the tears were drying but still hard to satisfy.
THE INCREMENT DELIVERED
Rohit called his wife and by now he bravely made his mind that he will not let all these efforts go in vain and asked Shilpa to get ready. Now the bedroom door opens, and a sharp question hits Rohit “ What do you mean by get ready?” Rohit explained “ You are forgetting that we have a car and Nainital is just 6hrs drive from here…. we are going to Nainital now !!!”
The cloud slowly started to disappear, and all the tears were swallowed, and a mild question came in “ Are you serious?”
“ Yes, I Am…200%” assured Rohit and looked at his daughter who now started to dance and move yelling “ YAYYYY “ with both her hands lifted towards the sky.
Perhaps the joy hidden in pleasing the stakeholders with something unplanned is way satisfying by far!!! Tanya and Shilpa had one of their best vacations for next 3 days.
THE FINAL PRODUCT DELIVERY
“ Phew!!”. That was some tour, Rohit thinks after he parked his car back home.
The very next day he again assured his hotel and transport bookings hold good and he was satisfied by the professionalism demonstrated by both 3rd parties.
And guess what, this time he just removed the dependency by NOT calling Bose Uncle and arranged the confirmed tickets on his own. He returned home and the moment door opened, he just hugged both of them tight and showed them the confirmed tickets!!! He yelled “Yes, Yes, Yes …. Finally, we are going to Kashmir in October”.
The priceless smiles on her family’s face made him feel out of the World and he feels so proud about the fact that finally, in spite of a big impediment (Bose Uncle from Railways), he was able to deliver the FINAL product (Kashmir tour) with an interim satisfactory increment delivered (Nainital trip) to his business stakeholder (Shilpa and Tanya 😊) and made them HAPPY!!!
The Agile way of work is associated with us in every step of our lives 😊!!
This is the continuation of sharing our Agile Stories/Thoughts Series. I strongly recommend referring to the links below for previous insightful blogs from our #teamagile in IBM
Content of Agile Stories/Blogs
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