Focus On Intent!
I frequently use the term 'focus on intent', especially with respect to the writing of story cards and acceptance criteria. When I'm focused on intent:
- I understand, with absolute clarity, the goal my customer is trying to achieve and it's NOT expressed in terms of how I am going to get there.
- I have distilled the context of the situation by identifying the most significant or important contributing factors.
- My clarity of understanding allows me to convey meaning, describing these factors clearly with a high signal-to-noise ratio.
- My state of mind is determined and concentrated on a central point while I focus on achieving only one thing at a time without ambiguity on the outcome.
- I have identified a clear, unambiguous measurement that will tell me when I am done.
- I am conscious of the essence of design and so I maintain consistency at different levels of detail so that everything makes sense separately and in context of the whole.
For me, focusing on intent conceptually represents a cognitive state required to be effective. However, achieving this state of mind isn't easy, especially in a busy environment. Personally, I find the
Pomodoro technique useful in staying focused.
Labels: focus, intent, pomodoro
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The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment
- William W. Ward
To help you appreciate and understand the values you believe in, look at the people you respect. All of us have role models - those people we admire and look up to for the qualities that they possess. We may admire their intelligence, sense of family, fame, wealth, courage, positive energy, community activism or social action, high coding standards, domain knowledge, ability to catch critical bugs during testing, business and application knowledge as product owners, level of personal discipline, or simply their compassion for others. They may be famous people, family members, friends, colleagues or even fictional characters from television or movies like star trek, superman or batman.
Who are the people you look up to? Why?
What qualities do you admire in others?
In the Star Trek television series, I admire the strength and energy of their captains. They were all focused, strong and highly disciplined individuals. They are always in control of themselves. They know who they are, where they are going in life,
and they go there. I especially admire their sense of independence, adventure, duty, responsibility, leadership, team work and will power.
Make an effort each day to bring you closer to your goal, make a commitment to yourself that you will continuously strive to make a conscious decision each day to improve your discipline and aim for excellence.
Remember that the only obstacle that stands between you and your personal success in all that you do is
yourself.
Credit to Scott McMillan (The Big Game) and The Agile Skywalker.
Labels: agility, delivery, discipline, focus, star trek
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