About a month ago David came home from work, turned on the TV and asked me to come into the room. I heard the familiar woosh of a TED Talks video and sat with him in The Big Green Chair. A co-worker told him he should watch this video about using Agile in the family:
I’ve been married to a software developer for almost twenty years and I’ve learned that if I want to truly talk to my husband it helps if I know what’s going on in his world. Agile was not a new concept to me as we have had many conversations about scrum, sprints, stories and are even trying to implement Agile in our common workflow at Big Green Chair.
We watched it twice. We talked about it over coffee. Some things really appealed to me. A key one was the emphasis on adaptability. In a large family nothing ever stays the same or in the same place for very long. So we agreed that the boys should watch it with us. We decided we would like to try this in our home.
For those of you who don’t know we have six (yes, people count as we walk by) boys. It is a usually happy but not orderly household. The unhappiness is usually related to disorderliness. While we like routines, we are not good at implementing rigid systems and schedules – they feel restrictive to us. I don’t think you will ever find any ‘organize your life and homeschool in five easy steps’ posts here at Big Green Chair as our steps are usually stacked with books, shoes and LEGOs. So is idea of Agile family management appealed to the style of our freeform, creative family.
We were wondering if there are any other families who are using Agile or any Agile components in their homes. Would you mind leaving us a comment to tell us about it? If you have written a post about the experience send us a link to someoneimportant@biggreenchair.com we would love to read it.
We are also interested in resources that have been inspiring and helpful to you. Here’s my most recent read: How Scrum Made Us A Better Family by Martin LaPointe – now I want to talk to David about a back log. I’m also looking over Feiler’s book The Secrets of A Happy Family.
Tell us about your Agile Family experience!