Have you seen the movie The Princess Bride?
If not, that's inconceivable.
While ostensibly a swashbuckling tale of high adventure, pirates, torture, and true love, the film is actually full of advice for agile teams.
And the book is even better.
Here are nine takeaways for Agile Teams from The princess Brides.
Number one, cutting quality never helps.
In the movie, the hero Wesley dies but turns out to be only mostly dead.
This is good news because a miracle can bring him back to life.
When pushed to rush making that miracle happen, Miracle Max brushes aside the urgency by saying, you rush a Miracl man, get rotten miracles.
Max's words remind us not to rush.
When a team hurries, it creates problems they'll need to solve later.
No rushing for Miracle Men or Agile teams.
Number two, iterating gets easier over time.
Another of Wesley's trials involves him drinking wine that has been poisoned with Iocaine powder.
Normally, this would be fatal, but Wesley has spent years building up a tolerance to Iacaine.
He drinks it and survives.
Very few Agile teams need to become accustomed to drinking Iocaine powder.
However, all Agiles teams do need become accustom to new practices, such as iterating, automated testing, frequent collaboration,
and so on.
Like Irocaine Powder, these practices do get easier to take over time.
Number three, the Scrum Master is a role.
In The Princess Bride, The Dread Pirate Roberts is revealed not to be a single pirate, but a progression of pirates, all using the same name.
Upon the retirement of the first Dred Pirates Roberts, his second-in-command carries on under the name, deciding that this would be easier than building
his own reputation as TheDreadPirateCluny.
When he retires, a third Dread Pirate Roberts takes over, and so on.
In other words, the Dred Pirates Roberts was a role that was being filled by one pirate at a time.
It's the same for Scrum Masters.
Number four.
Tools have their role.
The Agile manifesto is well known for favoring individuals and interactions over process and tools.
This doesn't mean agile teams are opposed to tools, we just want tools that support individuals in interactions.
A good tool such as a Holocaust cloak used by Fezik in the movie can really be a lifesaver for a team.
Number five, things are rarely as scary as they seem.
Going through a change can seem frightening.
Adopting Agile, for example, can be scary for team members wondering how design fits into Agil or how testing can accomplished in the same iteration as coding.
In the movie, Wesley and Buttercup are forced to navigate the fire swamps and battle the rodents of unusual size who live in swams.
Buttercup in particular is fearful because, as Wesley acknowledges, no one has ever survived.
But once through the fire swamps, Wesley concludes, it's not that bad.
Well, I'm not saying I'd like to build a summer home here, but the trees are actually quite lovely.
Agile teams need the courage to try new ways of working.
They rarely find anything as intimidating as fire swamp or rodents of unusual size.
Number six, work at a sustainable pace.
In The Princess Bride, Count Rugen offers the advice.
Get some rest.
If you haven't got your health, you have got anything.
Agile teams practice this through the principle of sustainable pace.
Working at a steady, consistent pace beats frantic overtime followed by periods of recovery.
Number seven, action settles arguments.
In a classic scene, Vizzini, a genius who makes Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates look like morons, argues with the man in black.
Not Johnny Cash, but a different man.
This was before Johnny Cash, but after arguing, everything came after argument.
No matter how well Vazzini reasons through his predicament, he and the man in black only resolve it through action.
It's the same with agile teams.
Team members can debate process changes or technical decisions endlessly, But the only way to resolve the dispute is to try something and see how it works.
Number eight, flexibility is essential.
It's beneficial to have team members with more than one skill.
The tester who can write some JavaScript or the programmer who could make database changes, for example.
Inigo Montoya demonstrates the ultimate in flexibility by sword fighting with both his left and right hands as needed.
Number nine, rely on reason, not guesses.
In the Princess Bride book, Vizzini, with his staggering intellect says, I don't guess.
I think, ponder, deduce, then I decide.
But I never guess!
When identifying changes to make, agile teams should do the same.
Think about the sprint that is ending, Ponder possible improvements to making, Then deduces and decides on the most promising changes.
I hope The Princess Bride can help reinforce these agile lessons for you.
I know it's cliché to say so, but the book is much better than the movie.
Check it out if you haven't yet.
Remember, agile is difficult.
Anyone who says different is trying to sell you something.
Now, anybody want a peanut?