Flexible, but not Agile

[livingdeb]

Today I went to a presentation about our computer guys. One of the points the presenter made was that because we made our own projects instead of buying things off the shelf, we ended up with systems that are flexible. In the olden days, speed in creating a project was desired.

However, now we have a lot of systems that need a lot of maintenance. When we want to modify something, we can, but first we have to spend some time acquainting ourselves with, basically, someone's personal private program, then more time upgrading it, and then lots of time testing it. So, in the words of one of her co-workers, our systems are flexible, but not agile.

So now when we create something, we no longer emphasize getting it finished quickly. We emphasize creating something that can be easily modified in the future by any programmer.

I really like this philosophy, although it's really only important for things that will change. But it's hard for people to remember or perhaps even admit that something they are working on now is likely to be changed in the future.

One good example of this is houses. Most house builders don't design the houses to be easy to modify. But lots of houses do get modified. A great book on this topic is Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built. For example, it's quite common for porches to become walled-in additions. So, when you're pouring the concrete for the porch floor, it would be helpful to make sure it could also work as a foundation for an addition.

I wonder how many things we routinely make decisions about without planning for change when we would make better decisions if we did.

For example, just today I talked to someone about how to neaten up a big pile of cords. We decided that any solution should retain the full length of all the cords, in case we wanted more length later. And we should keep the wires easy to access and to distinguish so we can easily make changes in the future.

I also talked to someone about the deliciousness and caloric load of the free breakfast tacos this morning. She said she has learned to buy knit clothing that will stretch with her as she changes sizes.

Comments

flexible and brilliant

[pamwheatfree.livejournal.com]

I always try to be flexible. I do yoga every morning just to keep this in mind. I find that I get better flexible solutions if I sit on a question and allow myself to explore all the possible answers whether they make sense or not. John likes my blurted out answers that are immediate and totally off the wall. He thinks they're brilliant but sometimes I just sit there wondering where did that come from?