My new year’s evolution

So we’ve come to the end of yet another ‘sprint’ known as a year. Each 365 day sprint seems to go by quicker each time.

Traditionally this is the time of year when we retrospect on how the last 12 months have gone and we come up with a ‘resolution’ to do better in some way in the next 12 months.

If I’m on honest, I can’t remember the last time I made a new year’s resolution. I think the main reason why it has been many years since I made a new year’s resolution is that I no doubt set unrealistic, non-specific goals, where I give myself the whole year to achieve, but then have no actual way of knowing whether I have achieved the goal or not, and therefore I’ve probably subconsciously given up before I’ve started.

This year I am going to set myself a new year’s evolution, but instead of reflecting on it in 12 months time, I’m going to evolve my resolution by actively reflecting on it every 4 weeks, and I’ll make small changes if I’m not quite achieving what I set out to do.

So my overall goal is to read more. But, as I’m sure you’ll agree, that’s a pretty open ended goal. So to be more specific, here is a user story for what I want to achieve.

As someone who loves software being released frequently

I want to read the remainder of the Continuous Delivery book, which was purchased about six months ago

So that I can get a more detailed understanding of the mechanics that support software being delivered continuously

I’ll aim to complete that story in the next four weeks, i.e. finish reading the book. I’ll review how I got on at the end of the four weeks.

Hopefully I don’t fall at the first hurdle… but if I do, I’ll change something so that I do better in the next four weeks. I’ll keep you posted on how it is going.

In the meantime, the team at scrumandkanban.co.uk team wish you a very happy new year. Best wishes to all of you that are also making evolutions, let us know how you get on.