The Agile Story

“Hello.Good morning. How are you”. !! My (ex-colleague) greeted me on a Saturday during morning walk when we met after a long time as he shifted his house near the area where I stay. A very nice gentleman with helping nature. 

I wished him too and started asking him “Aur batao yar, kya chal raha ! sab badhia he na ?”

As my friend belongs to the southern part of India, he doesn’t speak Hindi that fluently but manages by speaking bits and pieces as I do the same for south languages. His kind-hearted and funny personality makes him a friend with anyone easily.

: “Bahat Paresan hogayi sir meri office ka Agile process se..” My friend told (his Hindi got me a smile on my face and gave a little more energy to walk another 500 meters ).

: “Kyun kya hogaya yar..!” “Pehle tu tera Hindi thik karale yar.. Being a Man you shouldn’t say Meri (Its Mera)”. No worries, even I am not an expert but I will help you. I told him.

: “You are my Hindi teacher sir. I want to improve my Hindi. Please correct me”. He started saying his agile story in southern accent Hindi mix English.

I asked him why are you so much troubled about Agile. It seems you are too much involved and you should be enjoying it right?

: “Yeah we are now full Agile. We have adopted the change, otherwise, we will be left behind.. you know !” my friend told.

: “Yeah that’s correct. You got it right but.. Let me ask you one thing that are you following Agile-Scrum methodology or Kanban ?” “Tell me which process you are following practically? I asked.

: “Sir, We follow pure Agile nothing else”. Let me tell you what all do. Daily, we go to the meeting room to discuss technical things then we do stand-up daily then we give updates to the manager and we document it.” “And what not...All that we do sir !! We are pure Agile”.

: “Oh ho..That’s what Agile ba! ” I must learn from you then. I told my friend.

: “Please don’t tease me, sir. I know you are certified and practicing it for quite a few years. But we also do pure Agile defined by our company.” Told my friend.

: “Abah..you have an Agile defined your company. I haven’t heard of it. The Agile process that I know is defined by Scum Alliance who provides training by various certified and tested trainers who guide individuals, corporates to adopt Agile methodology. Also, they offer various certifications like CSM, CSPO, CSP..etc which are meant for various levels like Scrum Master to Product Owners and above.” I am not an expert but..what you told is not all about the agile process. I told him.

: “Sir, all that is fine. I also read from the internet but we don’t have that time for all those circuses. We have a sharp deadline. We have to deliverable already planned.” told my friend.

: “Circus..what you mean by that ?” I asked him.

: “Can you tell me what is your velocity ?”

: “Sir, I always go around 90 you know...I love the speed !! 100 is my target but you know Bangalore traffic rite!!”

: “Dewada..!! (Oh GOD  ). I am not talking about your driving speed pa..” I am asking your team’s velocity. How many story points you burn per sprints. Your Burnt down chats will have it all.

 : “We don’t burn anything, sir. Is it a new type of chart? Microsoft will introduce new charts every time..who remembers that? l know the pie chart, bar chart, and all those sirs. But as scrum, a master will decide which chart to use. Who will waste time by creating those boring? I even didn’t attend any Scrum pieces of training. We have a very tight schedule you know! Full busy. No time for charts and all.”

: “Kahan apna sar phodun yar..! Oh you are the Scrum Master ba ! (Paresh Rawl ka yaad aya.. Mereko Uthale re baba!!)”

 : “Then how you let your clients know that you are following Agile.. yar !!”

: “I do is stand up and asks everybody what you have done, note it down and send a mail daily. At end of every month I see how many tickets resolved versus the planned number of tickets. Send reports to customers pro-actively every week. We don’t wait till customer asking about status. That’s what agile.. you know.”.

: “Pandag chesko (Enjoy yar).. Dewata(Oh GOD). He Prabhu, mujhe bachale ” I said to myself.

: “Sir you know telegu ba !” he asked.

: “Han jitna hindi tumhe pata utna telegu mujhe.. ” We laughed.

He didn’t come for a few weeks and then I called him, messaged him but no reply.

Suddenly I got shocked after I received his message at midnight.

: “Sir, after that day morning walk. I got serious about Agile and scrum process. I have completed training, the certification also. I got an on-site opportunity in short notice to china. I couldn’t reply to your call as I was always busy with work, the travel process and all. I thought to give you a surprise visit after returning from china but. I got infected by Coronavirus. I was not keeping well, so I had to return India but from the airport, they shifted to nearby hospital with a suspect of Corona and it was confirmed. I have no hope of life now as there is no medical doctor could give for this virus.”

I called him in the morning but no reply. I messaged him to but reply. Again after a week, I called and one of his cousin brothers received the call and told me he passed away 1 week back.

I was shocked. I couldn’t believe my ears. Tears came to my eye. The agile story couldn’t complete...

About the Author:

Bijaya Kumar Panda is an Indian ( born in the state of Odisha), working at an MNC software firm at Bangalore.

He was the nominee of “Author of the Year-2019” by the digital platform Story Mirror. He has co-authored Odia's storybook “Prerana”. He is a founder-editor of two Odia literary magazines “Kanakaprabha” and e-magazine “Odisha Bijaydhwja”.