Waterfall Workouts Fail Like Waterfall Software Projects
I ran 4 miles this morning! Well, almost 4 miles. My goal today was 3 miles and I ran about 3.5 and walked another .5 miles. But for me, that’s huge! I realized another thing while running today – I was using waterfall methodology to plan my personal health project before starting this! When I finally started working out I was around 230 lbs – obese. Now I”m down at 215 and I can run 4 miles.
So why do I say I was using a waterfall approach? I have been “planning” to workout for at least a year now. But, since I didn’t actually know what I didn’t know – what my body could do, what I’m mentally capable of, what to eat – this planning phase lasted much much longer, and cost me much more (health wise) than it should have! By the time I finally got to working out, all that planning was for naught – I had gained an additional 20 pounds and loss muscle mass. My project was doomed to fail from the start!
The parallels to waterfall projects here are pretty amazing. Research and planning in a waterfall project usually consume so much time and money, that the project starts off far behind the current state of affairs for the business environment, and has already cost over half the amount of money that the entire project is supposed to take! That sounds pretty bad for the health of your business!
So yesterday I mentioned my agile parallels to exercise, and I’ll bring it up again. I changed my game plan – I picked something I thought I could do, started it, and after a week determined where I was really at. I actually started going to the gym and running on an elliptical before starting the BUD/S Warning Order workout just to gauge where I was and whether or not doing that workout would be beneficial to my health.
After about 2 weeks, I evaluated and determined that yes I could do it. My health project is on track, and I’m reaping immediate rewards for it. Even better than that, I haven’t invested that year of up front planning and costs to determine that I am indeed overweight and out of shape! I got quick feedback on what was valuable and what wasn’t, and corrected my health and nutritional regimen accordingly.
At some point in this fitness project I may determine that I’m at a fitness level that’s just right for me and put myself into a maintenance phase. Meanwhile, the folks using waterfall fitness are probably still planning or have already set unrealistic goals and will pay for it in the end without a whole lot of extra benefits.
So what type of fitness or software development plan sounds right for your investment?
