[core-workflow] workflow types: agile (gameplay) vs rigid (process)

[anatoly techtonik]

##

When people say about workflow, they can mean
algorithm, instruction or a checklist for specific
action (level 0), set of connected actions (level 1)
or a way to organize actions (level 2).

level 0 and level 1 are rigid workflows, which is
typical for business processes of big corps, where
people are meant to replaceable.

level 2 is related to agile workflows, where actions
are not static, but dependent on many conditions
that are influencing each other and hard to
formalize. Agile workflows often take into account
personalities, habits and environment of people
involved in a process. Such workflows can be
extremely efficient, but often extremely fragile,
because they depend on specific people, time,
events and context.

##

Agile models are popular and business likes to
buzz about it, but most major corporations failed to
adopt it, because it makes projects personalized,
requires them to be open. While being open
harms profits, the biggest problem is loss of control.
That's not an issue for open source projects,
where fun is already dependent on specific people
and there are no profits, even though the process is
not always open for other reasons.

I hope that these hints may inspire people who never
tried to design a collaboration process to explore
new models of useful and entertaining environment
that are not based on known enterprise practices.
Just think about why different people don't feel fun
contributing to Python overall, who are those people,
why Python community needs them, and how you
can help them by removing obstacles.

##

Some agile workflows don't give you any instructions
at all - they just give you a set of tools that you need
to combine to get a specific task done. Tools can be
communication and collaboration tools - not only a
hammer or a piece of software. "sprint" is a tool,
"open space" is a tool. People are neither tools,
nor resources. They are lazy animals, wired on
emotions, who enjoy playing games, having fun and
excited by technology that makes things for them.
You and I is one of these species, so instead of
thinking that you're not the animal, just think about
what you'd enjoy personally, without trying to define
rules and regulations for the rest. If I like your idea of
having fun - one day I will come up to join it too.

-- 
anatoly t.