The 300 Spartans were Agile!

Was the Spartan army agile? Below are some facts about how they did what they did. You can judge for yourself.

"Much of why a Persian army of perhaps over 100,000 soldiers was stopped by 300 Spartans brings into play the role of strategy and tactics in any successful ground war"

"History tells us that young men being groomed for the military in Sparta entered their training in childhood leaving behind family to devote every moment of their lives and every fiber of their beings to becoming fierce and effective soldiers. Their physical training was intense and it never ended"

"We do have to recognize that in the end, the Spartans were defeated"

"The pass was narrow so when the Spartans took their position at high ground, they could block the pass with numerous rows of Spartan defenders to repel the Persians"

"The Spartans were armed with tough and well designed armor and weapons in contrast to the Persians who wore no armor and who fought primarily with inferior short swords"

The above quotes make it pretty clear that:

1. They possessed an army of men much greater than 300 but still they preferred to go with a smaller squad. They believed in working in small cohesive teams.
2. They believed in keeping a constant check on quality. The intensity of physical training never ended. A check on quality is a never ending process.
3. They believed in measuring success by measuring how efficiently they defeated the Persian army. Although in the end the Spartans were defeated and most of them died but what mattered most to them was how efficient they were while doing what they did. In software development efficiency can be measured by the velocity of getting user stories done. Velocity increases when user stories are tackled efficiently by improving strategies used.
4. They used the pass of Thermopylae to their advantage. Think of the pass as a Kanban swim lane, and think of the persians as numerous requirements coming at you at random intervals in the swim lane. You can crush them one by one without worrying about the others that are not in the swim lane yet. In Kanban you have the advantage of forming several passes as and when you require them.
5. The Spartans had well designed armors because they believed in high quality design and security.
6. The Spartans were defeated but they still achieved much more than any other army could have. It is much like a Sprint team ending it's Sprint. Thankfully no one dies while building software but in agile teams success is measured by how much they get done and how efficiently they get it done more than anything.

The above 6 points in some way or the other reflect some of the core agile principles. If you think about it from a software development perspective the persian army is more like hard deadlines combined with changing requirements and tough clients. The great spartan army is more like small cohesive scrum teams that work in incremental fashion, have a clear strategy, battle all odds and meet tough deadlines much beyond their waterfall capacity and off course everyone gets to live!