Agile is such a buzzword now (although I hate to call it buzz word as I truly believe that agile is more a lifestyle). Are there industries using agile beyond IT? Well, we all know Lean and Kanban and similar agile concepts came from automobile industry.
My grandparents and that generation were predominantly agriculturists. Now my brother is also getting into agriculture and farming (he is a civil engineer otherwise). And I have grown up seeing them in the farms work and when I look back, I find that agriculture / farming is probably a lot more agile than any other industry. The values like “respond to change” vs. Following a plan are all adapted in true spirit.
Based on rain and water levels, they take decisions as to what next to be sowed and grown (although planned something else at the beginning of the year). They listen to the customer, watch the market very closely and grow that is in need / demand. Since they are in touch with their customers all the time (every person is their customer!), they get to listen to them and bring back that customer voice to the work place.
Most work is time-boxed for obvious reasons and they actually retrospect as what went well and what can they improve when they grow the next step (may not as fancy as IT like post its and white /glass boards in an AC room!). Every day, before work starts, the entire teams meets first thing in the morning to talk about how the weather looks like today, who will do what and where (which side of the farm) they will be and how they can be reached. Even impediments are discussed (e.g.: pumps not working efficiently and will slowdown watering and collectively decide who will get the technician to correct this).
They also demo the product at every iteration (the market owner usually visits the farm 3-4 times in the season to see how things are going).
Your thoughts?
