Agile Development Blog

In 2001, the Agile Manifesto was created with 17 signatories from around the world. Following on the heels of the first XP conference in Sardinia in 2000, the Manifesto fired its shot of agility across the Waterfall bow. A year later, at XP/Agile Universe 2002, I found myself standing at a folding table with Janet Danforth of Facilitator4Hire. We were selling facilitation services to the members of the Agile community gathered at a Courtyard by Marriott in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Approximately 80-100 people had come together in that steamy summer venue to continue Agile discussions and to define ongoing growth of methodologies, practices and frameworks.

Where we were

At the same time I was at my folding table in Lincolnshire in 2002, Ryan Martens was at a whiteboard in Boulder, Colorado. Ryan was brainstorming ideas about how he could use Agile practices to create a Software as a Service platform in the Agile domain. His goal? To provide zero-waste, low-carbon emissions applications and services for this growing, vibrant community.

In 2003, the Agile community gathered in Salt Lake City for the Agile Development Conference. This was my first time presenting at an Agile conference. Janet Danforth and I conducted a workshop: Collaboration 4 Agile Projects. And, unbeknownst to me, Ryan was also in Salt Lake City for his first Agile conference. As Ryan was busy engaging vendors about how they were supporting the adoption of Agile, I was busy networking with Agile thought leaders and helping to found “The Freaking Flock” (you’ll have to ask me about that in person!) Our paths were set and Agile was on the move.

Fast Forward to 2011

Now, in 2011, we are 10 years on from the Manifesto signing, 9 years on from the first sighting of me at the folding table, and 8 years on from Ryan’s first foray into the conference.

The Agile 2011 conference is an exciting one for both Agile and Rally. We are pleased once again to be a Title Sponsor of the conference. This year, August 8-12, Rally has 11 speaking sessions on the wonderfully vast and diverse program.

• Jean Tabaka and Julie Chickering: Enterprise Agile Visioning and Learning
• Aaron Sanders and Carlton Nettleton: There’s an Agile Game for that
• Karl Scotland: Dr W. Edwards Deming’s Famous Red Bead Experiment – For Software Teams
• Ken Clyne and Eric Willeke: Putting the Fun Back in Your Retrospectives
• Aaron Sanders: Ten Tales of Positive Change
• Ken Clyne and Julie Chickering: Risk Management Game
• Karl Scotland and Eric Willeke: Flow Games
• Jean Tabaka: Tell me Why: The Golden Circle of Agile Transformation
• Steve Adolph and Philippe Kruchten: Reconciling Perspectives: How People Manage the Process of Software Development
• Shane Hastie and Steve Adolph: Agile Thinking for Business Analysis-Going Beyond User Stories
• Karl Scotland: Designing a Kanban System for the Enterprise

We’ve also participated behind the scenes in advance of the conference as producers, co-producers and reviewers for various conference stages. And, once again, we’ll have a booth where you can come to meet our Agile coaches, talk with our technical gurus, and see the latest that is happening with Rally’s Agile ALM platform and services. Plus, you won’t want to miss our special commemorative activity at the booth this year. Stay tuned to the blog and follow our Twitter hashtag #roadtoagility for more details on how you can participate with us!

Going back to my history of Agile and Rally and the conferences

Ryan and I never met at the 2003 conference. But in 2004, as the conference moved into the northern Rockies in Calgary, Alberta, 4 of us stood together at a folding table in a small hallway. Rally’s representation at that Agile conference was Ryan as President of the company, Richard Leavitt as our VP of Marketing and Sales, Brad Norris as our sole sales person, and me as the sole Agile Coach. At that point, none of us were speakers. However, Rally has had one or more speakers at each conference since: Denver in 2005, Minneapolis in 2006, Washington DC in 2007, Toronto in 2008, Chicago in 2009, and the 2010 event in Orlando. Additionally, Ryan served on the Agile Alliance board during the years of the Washington D.C. and Toronto conferences.

From the folding table to now

Some things have changed in Rally’s Agile journey. We’ve grown from a 20-person company in 2004 to over 250 people and counting. Ryan is now the head of the office of the CTO. Richard is now the Executive Vice President of Worldwide Marketing. Brad is our Vice President of Field Operations. And I am an Agile Fellow in the Office of the CTO.

From a Manifesto, a whiteboard, folding tables, and a single speaker to title sponsorship with multiple speakers, producers, reviewers, and booth presence in a true exhibit hall at a conference with over 1,600 attendees, we’ve indeed come a long way!

Jean Tabaka is a frequent flyer on no particular airline, an author and Agile Fellow at Rally Software Development. You can follow Jean on Twitter at @jeantabaka

(Note: This post originally appeared at leadingresults.)

Several weeks ago, I made a pact with my Rally colleague Ken Clyne to finally begin blogging in 2011.

At the time, I expected that I’d write about agile product development – what it is to “be agile”, the relative merits of different frameworks, various tips and tricks, and basically share my experiences leading agile transformations.

After all, it’s what I do – it’s what I know.

But then I came across the great TED Talk: “The Golden Circle”, by Simon Sinek

(You can also see this video in Jean Tabaka’s recent post “Tell Me Why“).

“People don’t buy What you do, they buy Why you do it”…  Its amazing what happens when you start asking the right questions.

Agile isn’t the ‘Why’ – at least not for me.  Agile coaching is ‘What’ I do.  Why do I do it?  What do I believe?

First, I believe in LEADERSHIP.

Leadership tends to get a bad rap in some corners of the agile community.  After all, agile is about self-managed, empowered teams and the wisdom of the crowd.  Potential leaders are too often equated with traditional, autocratic management – slow, bureaucratic and in-humane – so they’re effectively told to ‘just stay out of the team’s way’ – and that’s unfortunate.

Truly enlightened leadership is the key to high-performing teams.  Real leadership unleashes the potential of people; transforms them into a team; inspires their passions and focuses their energies.

And I believe in RESULTS.

When we invest our time, energy and passion we expect to achieve something.  To realize meaningful results.  Results matter.  Results can mean more than making money (though it almost always includes that) – delighting customers, being first to market, and creating a great work environment may all be objectives for you, your team and your organization.  Are you achieving results?

No matter the beauty of your process or the philosophical purity of your approach; if it doesn’t yield results it’s a well executed failure.

Too often, results seem to get lost in process maturity and methodology dogma – and that’s certainly not unique to the agile community.

So…  Why Leading Results?

• Because I believe that enlightened leadership is the key to unleashing the potential of high performing teams that achieve results beyond the imagining of their individual members…

• I help unleash this potential by coaching people on how to lead effectively, from any position within the organization…

• I just happen to coach lean/agile principles and practices…

• Would you like to buy some?

Isaac Montgomery is the harried father of twin sons, the adoring husband of Angie, a frustrated hack on the golf course, and an Agile Coach at Rally Software.  He blogs at Leading Results, and you can follow him on twitter at @iwmontgomery