Begin as you intend to go on
As an Agile Coach, I always start with a Personal Agility Rating exercise whenever I work with a new Agile team. By ‘new Agile team’, I mean a team with whom I’m working for the first time, regardless of their Agile experience. I do this for two reasons: 1) [...]

The first and most important thing I share with any team I work with are the Agile Values, also known the XP Values from Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres.
The Five Agile Values
1. Communication is a two way thing. It’s about talking and listening.
2. Simplicity is about simple solutions that do what’s required, no more, no [...]

As an Agile Coach, the greatest challenge for me on any Agile Enablement gig is The Wall. And I don’t mean the Project Wall (aka Kanban Board), the one with the iteration backlog on display for all to see, where stories and tasks take their turn journeying across the columns of TODO and In Progress [...]

A training gig in Helsinki means an early start for Christmas celebrations this year. My Finnish guides help brighten up my brief, yet adventurous, 4-day visit with their cultural commentary.

‘There’s no specific Finnish word for “please”.’ It seems that it’s implied in the structure of what you say and how you say it. ‘That’s why [...]

Playing to learn about the Theory of Constraints
It’s 5 pm on a Thursday night and everything’s already pitch dark outside. We need at least 7 players to play the Bottleneck Game created by Pascal Van Cauwenberghe but we only have 6 eager participants. Being an Agile Coach has taught me to be resourceful (think Macgyver), [...]

Today’s a special day for my team: we’ve got one more day before our Iteration 1 Show & Tell and, of course, it’s Diwali, the Hindu festival of light. During the second part of our standup this morning (what we call ‘Information Broadcast’ where we share useful information among the team outside of the 3 [...]

At an Agile Conference
Agilista: A top Agile presenter always has a ‘thing’.
P.: Really? Like some kind of disease perhaps?
Agilista: (Rolls his eyes) No, something that makes them special.
P.: Ah. (Long pause) I tell Agile Fairytales.
Agilista: I’m being serious you know.
P.: So am I.

Agile Fairytales Hits the Mainstream
This Tuesday evening marked another of Agile Firsts. It [...]

‘No one enjoys their job as much as you do. You have way too much fun.’
- Grumpy
Agile Games Day
This Monday marked the day of yet another of Agile Firsts. It was the first time in Agile history that the XP Game and Business Value Game were played, back to back, in a single day, at [...]

Imagine. It’s 10.15 in the morning. The team’s just finished their daily standup. One of your team members seems to have gone missing.
The Office
(In an open plan office)
S.: Morning!
P.: Morning. (Pause) Everything all right?
S.: Sorry I’m late. I had to go to the vet.
P.: I didn’t know you had pets.
S.: I don’t.

 
It turns out Sruthi [...]

I’m in Toronto for Agile 2008 with Pascal Van Cauwenberghe to present two sessions: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall… Why Me? and Les Neuf Cases (known as ‘The Nine Boxes‘). Being away from home is great because it gives me time and distance to reflect on my Agile Enablement gigs both past and present.
Nothing is [...]