We all learn how to ride a bike the same way: we learn to pedal, keep our balance, and steer. And that’s it. We learn how to ride when we’re 5 years old and we’re off and riding for the rest of our lives with minimal instruction. I used this limited knowledge for years as I raced in triathlons and various cycling events. Last week I bought a new bike (an Orbea Orca for those of you who care). As part of the deal, I got a custom bike fitting and coaching session. I learned a lot during the session, mainly that I needed to learn how to “ride” a bike. I learned that my cycling posture was wasting a lot of energy and that my pedal stroke was not as efficient as it could be. I took the coach’s advice and this weekend put it into practice. And boy, was I sore. I was using my muscles in a whole new way. And guess what, I was riding faster and more efficiently. Over time, my muscles will get used to riding the right way and won’t hurt as much, and I’ll keep improving my speed and efficiency.
OK, so what, right? I’m riding faster now…good for me. But I was thinking about how we manage projects and develop software during my morning ride today. And I realized that my experience doing these things sort of parallels my cycling experience. I learned about project management and software development very early in my career (I was older than five). I had a good mentor and he’s someone I still hold in high regard and respect. However, what I learned back then was to keep my balance, steer the project, and keep pedaling forward. But as I matured professionally, I realized that there was more to project management and software development than this. In fact, if I stopped steering the project and let our clients and developers steer, we’d achieve better results. If I stopped always pedaling forward and took a look back once in a while, we’d improve how we worked and what we delivered. As for my role as a “project manager”…I found that if I stopped trying to ride the bike and just held the seat and gave a push to those on it, I was really doing my job and enabling the riders (our teams) to ride farther and faster.
Sometimes it hurt a little to do these things, but after a while, our teams got used to it. With time, we weren’t sore when practiced these “new” ways of working and we saw great improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. So remember, when you start implementing agile project management and development practices, it going to hurt a little, but it’ll get better over time. And when you’re starting out and going through agile adoption curve, keep this in mind: If it hurts, you’re probably doing it right.
