Doing Agile Right

 

3

HOW AGILE DO YOU WANT TO BE?

Spoiler alert: the title of this chapter is a trick question. You will soon see why. But let’s start with a different kind of journey altogether.

In February of 1982, Mark Allen was twenty-four years old and had been out of college for two years. A strong swimmer, he had been working as a lifeguard in San Diego, participating successfully in occasional lifeguard competitions. San Diego was the home of modern-day triathlons, long-distance combinations of swimming, bicycling, and running events. The sport was still new, and many questioned whether it would survive.

But Allen was captivated. That month, he decided he wanted to compete in the sixth Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, coming up in October. It ...