Wondering why I, Saloua, associate agility with morning sickness? Let me tell you all about it!

It was 3 years ago, we were struggling with the vendor for one of our core systems. We were faced with a planning by which it would take one year to upgrade the software. One full year! The plan was that after receiving our signed off -with blood- specification, the vendor would go under water. Then, they will come out after a year to throw a delivery over the fence to us which would take another 6 months to bring to production with lots of pain and tears. I felt so frustrated! There had to be another way.
In the midst of this very frustrating times, there was a wind of change blowing through ING. Not the mistral but a new wind called Agile working. So we decided to become agile (anything, even a pact with the devil was better than what we had !). You decide such a thing in a sec and it takes you a  lifetime to make it happen. Every day a little bit better. I recall a vivid memory of reading the agile manifesto and thinking how come it took so long to come up with something like this! This is just common sense…. how could we do something else. Ever! For me it was love at first sight.

My first experience with agile will always be a cherished memory for me. In fact, I started on this agile journey as I became pregnant with my son. So my agile journey was a true roller coaster of emotions. Emotions made of memories of brainstorm sessions to come up with our first user story while fighting morning sickness. A first backlog refinement which ended up in the biggest headache ever. Getting to put together the first scrum team as my belly was  becoming rounder and rounder…so many memories from the first steps in a special journey

Now 3 years down the road, I find myself saying I’m an agile fan. I believe in its power and how it can help you deliver miracles. Small but many little miracles with each minimum viable product. So I hope that by sharing experiences like these, you also get infected by our agile fever… talk to you soon folks!

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