Whiteboards & Agile Teams – Give us walls but don’t divide us!
I just heard about this great new product from Idea Paint – it’s paint that can turn all of your walls into whiteboards(!) This is clearly an excitingly geeky prospect for any Agile team.
I’m not overly sure how cost effective this option is (£2.16GBP/$3.5USD per sq.ft) versus mounting whiteboards on walls, however it’s definitely an interesting concept.
This new product actually reminds me of a remarkably profound moment I experienced towards the end of 2008. and I were working with our Facilities department to ensure that our new space was layed out and fitted with tools that promoted collaborative working – each team needed their own Task Board and planning space. This (as one can imagine) is somewhat of a challenge when situated in a glass building with few walls(!)…
The brief emerged: “Give us walls but don’t divide us”
Note: I must confess that our temporary stint with no walls did result in a task board with one of the best views in London (the Tate Modern, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Thames, The City of London)! – see inset. There is clearly less reason for distraction during the Daily Scrum nowadays!
Related articles:
- IdeaPaint (ideapaint.com)
Not a new idea!
When I worked at The Economist, we had whiteboard walls for CFO.com in our NY office (this was around 2002). They worked well, but after a while just began to look a little grubby.
As the downturn kicked in we leased the nice space out and moved into a more traditional space. Oh well!