So a friend of mine does refurbishing of buildings and we were talking the other day and he was saying
that he always has troubles with trouble with the electricians so they always say oh yeah we can do
that in four weeks.
And then when he comes back after the first week they've done nothing because they got four weeks you
know.
And then after two weeks they've done a little bit and he goes Are you going to finish this guy.
It's gonna be if it's all going to come together at the end.
They say these classic waterfalls you can say.
And then when he comes back after four weeks they go oh sorry.
Yeah.
We had terrible trouble.
It's gonna take six in total.
And he said this happens every time.
And I said to him that's just granularity because if you if you don't allow the electricians to say
it's a four week job if you say I want to see one week if you like sprints just divide those tasks down
into one week tasks then Firstly they've got to show you a plan that adds up to four weeks and when
they're making that plan they might go actually we can't do it in four weeks I've now realized because
they've had to really focus on the detail and if it is doable they can't just waste the first week because
they got ages because they've got a deliverable into that week which is kind of what you're describing.
So I'm thinking you can have tight control with waterfall if you granulated down to whatever size you
choose.
I mean you could even have every day I'm going to come and see how much you've painted.
You know you could do that.
Yeah.
And so I think that's not exclusive to agile.
I think that idea of having tight control you could have that just the same in Waterfall couldn't you.
Well it's slightly different because you talk you know project management deals with the you know better
than I do but with milestones and things like that.
And so.
But remember when you're delivering your electrician they're essentially delivering in phases.
Yeah they're just like this is the first phase second phase.
There's a fourth.
And so in agile you don't deliver in phases.
It's scrum.
Typically you deliver iteratively and incrementally.
And so if you were going to have your electrician work in sprints and true sprints not just like phases
called sprints which is a very common thing that people do then the very first sprint they would have
one room completely wired everything.
And it would be the most valuable route you know the kitchen or something like that.
And then they could walk in and they say OK.
And that way if the electrician gets sick you know goes to Madrid whatever got your best room you've
got three of your four best rooms.
Yeah.
So yeah.
So that's fascinating.
But again you'd be mad to actually use agile if you were wiring up a building because I mean I know
the electrician could get sick or whatever but but but it could be a very inefficient way to do the
job.
And the thing to keep in mind which is one of the big advantages of Scrum and Agile is that if you use
the traditional phased approach then you'd have no rooms with electricity or or you'd have like you
know it all comes together at the end.
So you'd have like a two weeks before you're supposed to move into your house.
None of the electricity would work.
And then they flip a switch in all the electricity works.
But with agile you can actually move into your house after the first or second sprint provided that
you're ok living in your kitchen or you can be making money if it's something that you're making that
you can sell.