Breaking it down:

Scrumikanbanagilisticxpleanidocious is a word I dreamed up, this is its story.

It sounds like: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

This wonderful word enters many english-speakers vocabulary at an early age thanks to that great coach, Mary Poppins. Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious.

For those who (sadly) missed Disney's musical gem, here's a refresher:
Reporter: There probably aren't words to describe your emotions.

Mary Poppins: Now, now, now, now, gentlemen, please. On the contrary, there's a very good word. Am I right, Bert?

Bert: Tell 'em what it is.




agile/lean mashings

I was in-flight from Cape Town to Barcelona to give a talk on contracts at the  ALE unconference (yes, back in 2012), overflowing with enthusiasm.

Looking forward to a mash-up of great people in the European Agile and Lean worlds, I had a think about what we were doing as an industry.

There is a lot going on, with different schools of thought coming together, clashing, dancing, growing.

We each choose a particular subset of them all to find a way to create great software.

"There probably aren't words to describe it all"

But, "On the contrary, there's a very good word. It's...

scrumikanbanagilisticxpleanidocious

Bringing together:

(even though the sound of it is something of a process).

And that's what we do: a weird & wonderful mash-up portmanteau of the bits that fit from what we find in the toolboxes of others.

I was so taken with it that I stood up in front of a room of people, many of whom I admired, but (mostly) hadn't met and said it as the first lightning talk. That was the start of a very #alesome conference.



Enjoy the word, use it for awesome.

:D