Scrum + Hip Hop: Vol. 1
Lessons of Agility in Rhythm & Poetry
Rhythm and poetry; better known as rap. From its early pioneers (e.g. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Afrika Bambaataa, and Kool Moe Dee), to rappers of today (like J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, and Chance the Rapper), rap music has evolved. It’s become more than straightforward rhymes over the simplistic boom-boom-bap 808 beats from the 70s-80s. It’s transformed itself into a storytelling musical genre filled with alliteration, assonance, and like the Beastie Boys said, “ill communication.” Sometimes used synonymously, there’s contention that rap and hip hop are the same.
“Rap is something you do. Hip Hop is something you live.” — KRS One
I lean toward the latter, but regardless of your stance, as with any form of music, evolution is essential. The same holds true with Agile. By now you may be asking, “What’s any of this have to do with hip hop?” It all hit home for me when my 9-to-5 made an announcement: “We’re moving to Agile, and we’re doing Scrum.”
Hard-liners of waterfall development for years, as you’d expect, the decision was met with some resistance. I can still hear the harumpfs. Developers, QA analysts, BAs, project managers, and a few middle managers were herded into mandatory training with an agile coach that the company asked to come in. What Peter Dean said in his two-day course resonated with me. He brought up things like small, cross-functional teams, shorter development iterations, and self-organization. It all made sense to me.
Anyone who works for a large company can relate to the degree of difficulty involved in making such a change. Especially when you get in your own way.
It’s what leads to people saying “we’re doing Agile,” and “we tried, but it failed to work in our environment.” Any agilist worth their salt will tell you that it’s not something you do. It’s an adjective; a mindset. If it failed, is it a question of Agile itself, or the failure to evolve one’s mindset? Maybe KRS-One was onto something.
Things really fell into place while listening to “Vibes and Stuff” by A Tribe Called Quest. There’s a line that goes: “Do your ill dance, don’t think about the next man. We must have unity and think of the bigger plan.” I started wondering how could I better spread the word through the company on what it meant to have an agile mindset. Sure, there’s the Agile Manifesto, PSM, CSM, and a wealth of other information out there folks can read for themselves. But none of that goes into how to evolve your thinking. It’s surprisingly simple to misinterpret the spirit of something without context.
“Life without knowledge is death in disguise.” — Black Star
In terms of hip hop, think of the Beastie Boys, and their musical evolution. They went from a little-known hardcore punk band, to rapping about fighting for their right to party, to one of the most iconic hip hop groups on the planet. The same type of evolution is vital when it comes to agile transformations. It’s more than having two-week sprints, holding retros, sprint reviews, and stand ups. That’s doing Agile, and what leads people to believe that it’s failed them. Being agile is a whole different game.
The Agile Alliance defines agile as “…the ability to create and respond to change in order to succeed in an uncertain and turbulent environment.” But what does that mean? How do you get there? Some have a tendency to think of it as something for developers, but to succeed at it, the entire company needs to be on board, and be open to change.
“We can’t change the world unless we change ourselves” — Notorious B.I.G.
New to agile transformations? Agile + Hip Hop is a series geared toward changing the conversation from the “we DO agile” mindset, to the “we ARE agile” way of thinking. It’ll explore what we can learn from hip hop culture, and give real-world examples.
Where do Agile and hip hop intersect? Buckle up, and follow along. I hope you dig it.
The Next Track: The Fundamentals of Rhythm
