# Agile Sun Salutation


Hello and welcome to the presentation of the agile yoga methodology. I am Allegra, and today I'm going to be your personal guide to YOGA, an acronym for "wh**Y** **O**rganize? **G**o **A**gile!". I'll be part of your team today and we'll do a few exercises together as an introduction to a new path into your professional and personal life towards creativity, focus and health.

A few months ago, I was stressed, overwhelmed with my work, feeling alone, inadequate, but since I started practicing agile yoga, I feel more productive. I have many clients as an agile yoga coach, and I've seen new creative business opportunities coming to me as a software developer. 

For this first experience with the agile yoga method and before we do physical exercises together, I would like to invite you to close your eyes. Make yourself comfortable, lying on the floor, or sitting with your back against the wall. Close your eyes, relax. Get comfortable. Feel the weight of your body on the floor or on the wall. Relax.

Leave your troubles at the door. Right now, you are not procrastinating, you are having a meeting at the SAY NAME OF YOUR LOCATION HERE, a professional building dedicated to business, you are meeting yourself, you are your own business partner, you are one. You are building your future.


You are in a room standing with your team, a group of lean programmers. You are watching a white board together. You are starting your day, a very productive day as you are preparing to run a sprint together. Now you turn towards each other, making a scrum with your team, you breathe together, slowly, inhaling and exhaling together, slowly, feeling the air in and out of your body. Now you all turn towards the sun to prepare to do your ASSanas, the Agile Sun Salutations or ASS with the team dedicated ASS Master. She's guiding you. You start with Namaskar, the Salute. your palms joined together, in prayer pose. You all reflect on the first principle of the agile manifesto. Your highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

Next pose, is Ardha Chandrasana or (Half Moon Pose). With a deep inhalation, you raise both arms above your head and tilt slightly backward arching your back. You welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
Then you all do Padangusthasana (Hand to Foot Pose). With a deep exhalation, you bend forward and touch the mat, both palms in line with your feet, forehead touching your knees. You deliver working software frequently.

Surya Darshan (Sun Sight Pose). With a deep inhalation, you take your right leg away from your body, in a big backward step. Both your hands are firmly planted on your mat, your left foot between your hands. You work daily throughout the project, business people and developers together. 
Now, you're flowing into Purvottanasana (Inclined Plane) with a deep inhalation by taking your right leg away from your body, in a big backward step. Both your hands are firmly planted on your mat, your left foot between your hands. You build projects around motivated individuals. You give them the environment and support they need, and you trust them to get the job done.

You're in Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose). With a deep exhalation, you shove your hips and butt up towards the ceiling, forming an upward arch. Your arms are straight and aligned with your head. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

Then, Sashtang Dandawat (Forehead, Chest, Knee to Floor Pose). With a deep exhalation, you lower your body down till your forehead, chest, knees, hands and feet are touching the mat, your butt tilted up. Working software is the primary measure of progress.

Next is Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose). With a deep inhalation, you slowly snake forward till your head is up, your back arched concave, as much as possible. Agile processes promote sustainable development. You are all maintaining a constant pace indefinitely, sponsors, developers, and users together. 

Now back into Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose). Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

And then again to Surya Darshan (Sun Sight Pose). Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential. Then to Padangusthasana (Hand to Foot Pose). The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

You all do Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose) once again. At regular intervals, you as the team reflect on how to become more effective, then tune and adjust your behavior accordingly.
You end our ASSanas session with a salute to honor your agile yoga practices. You have just had a productive scrum meeting. Now i invite you to open your eyes, move your body around a bit, from the feet up to the head and back again. 

Stand up on your feet and let's do a scrum together if you're okay being touched on the arms by someone else. If not, you can do it on your own. So put your hands on the shoulder of the SCP around you. Now we're joined together, let's look at the screen together as we inhale and exhale, syncing our bodies together to the rythms of our own internal software, modulating our oxygen level intake requirements to the oxygen availability of our service facilities. 

Now, let's do together a couple of exercises to protect and strengthen our wrists. As programmers, as internauts, as entrepreneurs, our wrists are a very crucial parts of the body to protect. In order to be able to type, to swipe, to shake hands vigourously, we need them in good health. So bring to hands towards each other in a prayer pose, around a book, a brick. You can do it without an object but I'm using my extreme programming book - embrace change - for that. So press the palms together firmly, press the pad of your fingers together. Do that while breathing in and out twice.

Now let's extend our arms out in the air, palms and fingers facing down, like we're typing. Make your shoulders round. Let's breath while visualizing in our heads the first agile mantra: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

Now let's bring back the arms next to the body and raise them again. And let's move our hands towards the ceiling this time, strenghtening our back. In our head, the second mantra: Working software over comprehensive documentation. 

Now let's bring the hands back out again in the standing position. Once again the first movement while visualizing the third mantra: Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.

And then the second movement once more while thinking about the fourth and last mantra: Responding to change over following a plan and of course we continue breathing.


Now to finish this session, let's do a sprint together in the corridor!




<small>_Agile Sun Salutation_ was developed by [Anne Laforet](http://www.sakasama.net/) and performed by Allegra during the [Techno-Galactic Software Observatory](https://constantvzw.org/site/-The-Technogalactic-Software-Observatory-.html) (2017) and published [here](https://www.books.constantvzw.org/home/tgso).</small>