Continuous Delivery Example in Life

Isn’t it a lovely laptop up there? Pretty cool for a gadget from the early 90s I’d say.

So what’s the deal with the old gadget photo you ask? Well, today I want to talk about culture of countinuous delivery. This is because there a lot of people who ask or misunderstand the concept.

While rummaging through the old gadgets that I used as a kid, I found the vtech laptop lying in the dusty corner of the storage cabinet. It dawned on me on how did I even learn to develop software at all. How did I start?

The green vtech laptop reminded me that what my parent did for me was a continuous improvement. I was fortunate enough to be able to own an early 286 IBM machine at home, but there was little chance that the 7 years old me was able to just use the computer. I might ended up deleting stuff like the operating system…

Giving me the vtech laptop was the safest early point to computer skills. I learnt how to use a (semi) full keyboard. I learnt how to start the games and learn without using any paper. I also learnt how to take care of the machine itself.

If we take this back to the agile principle of continuous delivery and early business value delivery, the above is what happened. My parents gave me a way to enjoy early “business” value thus essentially they were doing continuous delivery. It didn’t stop with that vtech laptop too, eventually I was using the 286 by the time I was 10 or so, playing games and setting up the DOS configurations. Then it was the 486 and so on.

All the above will never happen without the relentless support from my parents. This is the same with being a leader in the agile organisation. Always instill the culture of continuous delivery and providing early business value. Always facilitate the team whenever possible. Lastly most importantly, be resilient and coach the team.