Collaborate is quite an acknowledged word in the world of agile. I have been hearing this and indeed using this many a times consciously or unconsciously. In our day to day activity we work together or say team up to get our things done that’s what collaborate means. Let me tell you a story. In a forest, a hunter spread the net under the tree. He sprinkled the grains over the net for catching the birds. A group of doves flying by saw the scattered grains and wanted to eat. They came down, sat on the net and got trapped.
The hunter was very happy to see this and run fast to fetch a cage to catch those doves. Meanwhile, the leader of the doves told the group that they can escape from the clutches, if they all agree to fly together taking the net with them. All the doves agreed and started flying high together, taking along the net and soon they were far from the forest and could set themselves free.
Well, that’s what collaboration means. Doves represent the team members who come along to meet the common goals to deliver the product in multiple iteration called as Sprint through the framework, Scrum. Collaborating is just not working together but its bringing in the feeling of togetherness with a mindset to meet the customer needs at the right point of time. Collaboration can be of many types. Simple collaboration through communicating and messaging or a dialect, Detailed documented collaboration through proposals, documents and repository etc. Also there can be detailed collaboration via various forums and meet up.
Had the doves, not come together with a common goal to set themselves free, they all would have been captives of the hunter. Collaborating is very much a human activity and it requires every individual’s effort to communicate and connect. This doesn’t need any special skillset but surely does need loads of positive attitude to meet the set goal.
Beauty of Collaboration can only be witnessed when multiple minds come together to sail in the unfavorable winds. Collaborate to fly and breath the success with pride.