When you are working on the final stage of agile project development, you may find yourself overwhelmed, already spotting potential issues with your product that a consumer may never find. A closeness to a project equally fogs the mind and clouds judgement of what is good about a product, just as it does, make an individual to find flaws in everything. But, the most important thing, is that there is a finished project.
With software development, which was where agile practice originated, the cyclical nature of improvement derived from patching bugs and flaws in code. However, it is arguably much harder to do this when a project is out in the world.
Consider the iPod, one of the statement accessories of the music lover in the early 2000s. There were many makes and models of the iPod, the iPod Nano, the iPod Shuffle and the iPod Touch to name a few. These MP3 players all had the same purpose; to play music from an individual’s library. But, between each launch, what was the most significant change? To an onlooker, it appeared to be primarily aesthetics, with different models appearing strikingly different in comparison to its predecessors. However, iPods also focussed on improving their storage.
In hindsight, having just 1GB of music storage appears awful, especially when looking at how much music capacity your mobile phone has with Spotify installed. But, during the height of the iPod, and the MP3 player, having access to at least two hundred songs, on the go, was amazing. You may be wondering, however, which iPod had such little storage on it? A measly 1GB of storage was attributed to the 2005 iPod Shuffle.
I wouldn’t even get my whole gym playlist on one!
In comparison, later models such as the iPod Classic, iPod Nano and the iPod Touch, had much greater volumes of storage. And, did it really matter at the time? Customer demand derived from wanting access to more songs.
Now we live in a time with a much greater need for convenience; having to stuff multiple handheld devices in a handbag or a pocket may make you a target for thieves in cities, and although the loss is greater when your one central device is lost, broken or stolen, being able to go out in the world with your bank card on your phone, an archive of hundreds of songs, on your phone, and a high-quality handheld camera installed, there is much less need for individual pieces of tech. Therefore, contributing to the extinction of the iPod.
But, when iPods ceased to be viable, and the launch of music streaming services for mobile phones merging many features of iPods with iPhones, those pocket-size MP3 players became a relic of the past. The iconic smooth colourful metal devices, with small screens, and even smaller memories, are seldom seen, even in second hand technology stores. This being said, Apple are, surprisingly, still creating iPods; the iPod Touch 7th Generation is still available to purchase via the Apple Store. However, it seems it may only be a matter of time before this device in its entirety is rendered obsolete.
Nowadays, it is uncommon to see the primary demographic for smartphones with any of the other devices, as the convenience of having all of the above installed on one piece of tech is significantly more ideal than carrying multiples. However, the relic of generations past in the form of a digital camera or a mp3 player may be seen in the hands of children, too young to be considered responsible for a new smartphone, but crave the independence of their own technology, and with the cost of a poor-quality digital camera on Amazon being less than 40 GBP, the financial weight of the loss of one is much less than a smartphone.
Based in London, U.K., and founded in 2016 by Arvind Mishra The Agile Works (www.TheAgileWorks.com), is an up-and-coming recruitment and Agile consulting company. Arvind is a Certified SAFe SPC and regularly delivers both private and public SAFe certification workshops.
He is a design thinking expert, Sr. enterprise, portfolio Agile Coach with over a decade of experience working as an Agile coach in diverse industries such as banking, pharma, retail, auto, oil, gas, consulting and government.
The Agile Works; a small team of three strive to help shape the leadership's mind-set and values in readiness for their business transformation journey challenges. With Arvind at the helm, we strive to provide you with the agility tools to make your company that can thrive, and not just survive.
To book a consultation, or for any enquiries, you can contact Arvind via the following email address: arvind@theagileworks.com
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