Agile daily stand-up and The X-Files

I’ve been working with a customer for several months on a cloud modernization project. We are just over a month from production and addressing blockers in our daily stand-up meetings. Every so often, some “big and scarry” issue appears. Today I sensed something was about to surface so asked what’s the “monster of the week?”

Let me rewind back 30 years to 1993 when The X-Files was first available via OTA (over-the-air) broadcasting. You can watch today via OTT (over-the-top) services like Amazon Freevee. Per the X-Files Wiki, Monster of the Week (or MotW) refers to “episodes of The X-Files that typically deal with some type of supernatural or paranormal creature/entity.” These were the majority of episodes in contrast to the Mythology (or Mytharc) that told the overarching story of an international conspiracy to suppress knowledge of the existence of extraterrestrials.

Just like Agents Mulder and Scully, my job is not just to solve the monster of the week (tactical) problems, but also dive deep to expose the mythology (strategy). The customer doesn’t have a shadowy syndicate in their organization (that I know of), but sometimes to avoid stand-ups as MotW “filler episodes”, one needs to investigate and find the knowledgeable individuals, then redirect some meetings to bring resolution to the story arc.