Tools

When I was young, I had a riding lawn mower. We had a big yard out in the suburbs and the riding mower made the job quicker. Today I live closer to downtown in a house with a smaller yard. I’m currently using an old fashion reel mower…no motor, just foot power to make it work. For the yard I have, it’s all I need.

With all the technology around us, it’s easy to get caught up in the latest thing. Tools can make us more effective, but sometimes they can be distractions. 

Take project management tools. There are a plethora of them around and I have used them effectively on projects. But I have also run projects with just a white board and stack of post-it notes, not letting the technology get in the way of interacting with my team.

The Manifesto for Agile Software Development says it should be “Individuals and Interactions over Process and Tools” so ask yourself if the tool you are considering is going to help you or could it just be another distraction? Put another way, A fool with a tool is still a fool."