Camping - the Agile Approach

I’ve long been mulling the benefits of applying Agile and Scrum techniques beyond the software environment and indeed arguing for the uptake of non-technical skills within software teams to underpin Agile development and XP. Thanks to Kelly Waters’ fantastic blog,, in which he has recently posted Jeff Sutherland’s presentation of his Google retrospective, combined with a rather “Agile” holiday (more on that later…) this is now off the backburner once more.

The Agile Holiday…..

When we first mooted our holiday plans to friends and colleagues we were met with either excitement or horror (depending on their personal experiences). So what was this epic holiday that was splitting the group I hear you ponder….

Well, we were going camping, in France – oh yes that biggie – forget climbing mountains, trekking the Andes, even going up Snowdonia – no we were off to France – in a tent! The talk before we left ranged from bets as to how long we would last before finding a hotel to musings on the divorce that would inevitably follow from such folly.

So, why the fuss – well in retrospect (good practice even extends to holidays!) I think it was our Agile approach to the proposition that spooked people. We took to heart Joseph Perlrine’s mantra of Apply, Inspect, Adapt

Apply
Although we had never been camping before we knew that between us we had the skills to put up a tent (and the ability to explain to our French neighbours that we couldn’t if it all went wrong).

We had a tent. However, before our trip we had to “stop the line” on its initial trial erection due to the size of our garden. We had instructions…and so we applied!

Ensuring that a few simple requirements were met (namely we could get a flight to France and then use public transport to get around – we don’t drive) off we went! It is probably worth mentioning at this point that camping isn’t something that comes naturally to either of us (mutterings at the airport along the lines of “what have we done??” confirmed this).

Inspect
On arrival, it became clear that our chosen piece of the Atlantic coastline had closed down for August – no hotels, restaurants or bars were open – everyone had left to find a different piece of the Atlantic coastline to admire.

Our chosen site was lovely, the area incredibly warm and hospitable and breathtakingly beautiful.

The local transport stopped at 6pm every evening

There were some gales. The tent remained resolutely standing

Adapt
All plans for eating out were cancelled due to well, lack of options! We upgraded to two ring cooking and bought fantastic local produce and wine.

Lacking bars and cafes, our itinerary took on a more active tone – days were spent walking along coastline and through forests. Evenings were spent under canvas admiring the sky and the occasional rainstorm.

Outcomes
Well the holiday was a success, very different to what we initially imagined, but fantastic none-the –less. No divorce is on the cards and we are already planning our next excursion, building on the learning from this trip. If we had all of the information up front we wouldn’t have done it, our requirements changed very quickly into our trip and we were able to include these. The final product surpassed all of our expectations .

As Pelrine points out you need to Apply in order to know what you are talking about! Happy camping!