InsideOutAgile

Tag: agile

  • Why GOAT 2.0 is Changing the Conversation

    a real conversation
    free from projection
    and ego-flexing
    is a special gift
    most do not talk to listen;
    they talk to be heard
    – yung pueblo

    It has been six years since the last Gatineau Ottawa Agile Tour (GOAT) conference.

    Six years is a long time in the world of technology, but it is an absolute lifetime when it comes to agile people, systems, and organizations. Last Saturday, over pizza and board games, I reflected with fellow agile coaches (and dear friends) on how our local practitioner community has evolved since 2019. One thing became abundantly clear: we have grown up.

    The conversations we need to have today as an agile community are fundamentally different from the ones we were having a decade ago. When the GOAT organizing team sat down to envision what a return would look like for November 2026, we realized that simply dusting off the old playbook—inviting practitioners into a room to watch slides about the latest facilitation approaches and frameworks—was no longer going to serve this diverse community.

    Here is what I see, and why GOAT 2.0 is intentionally breaking from its own tradition…

    1. The Agile Community Has Grown Up

    When Agile Ottawa began hosting meetups back in 2009, much of the content was focused on advocacy and baseline education. We were teaching the world how to step away from waterfall (remember when waterfall was the big baddy…?). Today, most foundational concepts are easily accessible via an AI prompt. Let’s be honest, our community doesn’t need another session explaining the mechanics of a daily stand-up.

    Beyond this, many of us who were Product Owners or Scrum Masters have moved into leadership positions. As we became Managers, Directors, and Executives, we continued to lean on agile values and principles while grappling with something much deeper than the ongoing debates over agile frameworks:

    • How does our agility help us navigate radical uncertainty?
    • How do our values and principles inform us when making complex decisions and trade-offs?
    • How do our practices and work systems (as they currently stand) nurture resilience?

    As a community, we moved on from “how do we do agile?” to “how do we continue to deliver value in an increasingly complex, uncertain, and volatile world?”

    2. We Are No Longer an Island

    Many agilists have naturally integrated other disciplines into their work. Over the last six years, the lines between Agile, Lean, Product Management, Organizational Design, Change Management, and Project Delivery have beautifully (and sometimes messily) blurred. Even the Project Management Institute has integrated agile values, principles, and practices into its mandate.

    Regardless of how you feel about that, we are a much bigger community now. The people driving product, delivery, and organizational decisions are blending agility into their existing practices. A conference that favors a single view of what it means to “be agile” dismisses the reality of how cross-functional leadership actually happens on the ground.

    3. Radical Uncertainty Needs the Agile Community

    The agile leaders in our Ottawa-Gatineau community are facing intense geopolitical shifts, macroeconomic and market pressures, and the dizzying acceleration of AI-driven change.

    Nostalgic presentations won’t help us. Nostalgia, as we know, is not a strategy. 

    What we need right now is a mutually authentic and honest exchange about how agility, elevated, informs us as we navigate these choppy waters. We need a space where we can skip the theory, leave our egos at the door, and talk candidly about what is happening in our organizations.

    That is why GOAT 2.0 is capped at 250 participants. It is intentionally designed as a peer exchange rather than a traditional broadcast conference. The morning will frame the complex disruptions we face—Geopolitics, the Future of Work, and AI—and the afternoon will be dedicated entirely to facilitated, candid breakout discussions among peers who are navigating the exact same operational realities you are.

    It’s about relevance over scale. Depth over breadth. Participation over presentation.

    If you are a decision-maker, an influencer, or someone leading delivery through this radical uncertainty, our community needs your voice in the room. I hope you will join us on November 26th to engage in the kind of real conversation that is, as yung pueblo notes, a special gift.

    You can find the details and reserve your ticket at goagiletour.ca.

    Image from “Coaches Corner” at GOAT 2016… hard to believe this was 10 years ago.

  • New Leaders Series – Part 1: Shift in Stance

    After years of hard work as a software developer and high performing team member, you’ve found yourself facing a whole new set of challenges. You are a leader (architect, team lead, scrum master, mentor, manager) on your team.

    Looking back, everything that you’ve done along the way has supported you to get to this point. You’ve never backed down from challenge and have embraced the uncertainty of solving problems in code. You love the focus that comes with being able to tackle these problems with confidence. You’ve enjoyed the satisfaction that comes each and every time you’ve transformed an idea into a solution.

    However, all the skills you worked hard to hone in yourself reflect your stance as “expert practitioner” and while expert practitioner skills are foundational to your role, these are not the skills that you will need to grow in order to succeed as a leader.

    And no one told you this. When you got the promotion, no doubt your manager told you of the confidence he had in your abilities; however, your leadership up to this point has been fundamentally built on your ability to hone your craft expertly.

    Your new role requires a shift in stance. You are now responsible for supporting others to do what you did so well. There is a hidden assumption there; indeed, a fundamental change in how you perceive your value on the team.

    Your work is less “about you” and more “about them”.

    This shift from “me” to “we” isn’t a small change in thinking and being. It’s one that I’ve seen many new leaders struggle with as they are drawn instinctually back to the joy derived in expressing their craft…. the satisfaction and joy they experienced in being “the guy who solves the problems” rather than “the guy who enables others to solve problems”.

    In this series, I plan to explore some of the new skills that young leaders might consider as part of their new practice – assisting them to make this shift from “me” to “we”. It is my sincere hope that my own lessons (sometimes learned the hard way) can be of service to others beginning on this journey.

  • Agile Coach Camp – Making Space

    Last weekend, I was privileged to participate in Agile Coach Camp East. This is an event that I try very hard to attend every year… and every year, a theme emerges for me through the weekend.

    This year’s theme for me was “making space” and it’s a theme that I want to keep exploring. However, in the interest of sharing, here are my first thoughts based on what happened at camp…

    “Making space” means:

    1. Creating an environment where things can happen.

    Open Space and Unconference are wonderful examples of the power of making space. I’ve attended Coach Camp 3 times already… each time I am a little surprised at the depth and breadth of sessions that come out of such an event. It reminds me: this is the spirit of self organization; of trusting a group (in this case 70 individuals) to pull together and create something amazing collaboratively.

    2. Leaving room to breathe between all the things that happen.

    Some of the best group conversations I had during coach camp this year were during a jam session that went late into the night. I believe the quality of the conversations was directly connected to the ability of the group to disengage from these talks and do something else – something fun, something creative – in the space between the conversations. It reminds me that we are all better and happier people when we take time to connect with each other on a level that doesn’t directly relate to a specific or measurable outcome.

    My intention then is to go forth and “make space” for myself and others. I look forward to seeing what else emerges from this theme in the days to come…

    Thank you to the organizers and volunteers who make the space possible for Agile Coach Camp every year… and to all the participants who make space in their lives to connect. Looking forward to next year already!

  • Why We Play…

    It’s not uncommon for Agile coaches to engage their teams in games in order to experiment with new ideas. If you have ever participated in such activities, it’s likely that you have encountered individuals who dislike the idea of anything work related being transformed into a “game”.

    So… why do we play?

    We play to prototype and experiment with new ways of thinking and behaving. We play to open our minds to possibilities. Indeed, engaging in an activity “as play” actually helps us to explore many new ideas quickly and effectively as a team.

    In short, playing brings us to a “personal edge” in a friendly and joyful way.

    That being said, for some of us, the edge is simply to engage in play at all… and that’s an edge that I’m learning to see and understand better. In these situations, I would invite the individual to simply try the game and then to reflect on why we play… rather than focus on whatever other agenda I’m hoping to bring to the table by engaging in a game.

    After all, when we play, we explore many ideas at the same time… and one of those ideas can certainly be “why do we play?”

  • Powerful Questions

    There are many things that I’ve learned since becoming a mom… but there is nothing more powerful for me to date than learning to see the world through very young eyes.

    The beauty behind a child’s approach to the world is that it is so fundamentally based in observation rather than judgement. When my daughter asks questions, she seeks to better understand what she observes. In so doing, she rarely asks “why?” but is more focused on “what?” in her line of inquiry.

    From this, I’ve realized that “what?” is actually a very powerful way to question the world. Consider these examples for a moment…

    Rather than asking: “Why is that?” …ask instead: “What does that mean?”

    Rather than asking: “Why is she (or he) like that?” …ask instead: “What happened to her (or him)?”

    Changing your stance from “Why?” to “What?” opens up your line of inquiry. You automatically move away from a place of judgement to a place of understanding. Looking at the world through the eyes of a child isn’t for every occasion… but if you are aspiring to understand and accept, it’s not a bad place to start.

  • The Secret of Success

    Recently, the stellar community of Ottawa Agilists gathered to share stories about Agile regrets and success. The first session was hosted as a “fail faire” and the second session was hosted as its’ counterpart… a “success faire”. As an outcome, we attempted to gather the “lessons learned” and “secrets of success” for each event respectively.

    Having hosted both these sessions, it was interesting to me how much harder it was to root out the source of success over the lessons learned. In part, this came from the participants themselves… story tellers were more apt to share directly what was the cause of a failure. Success stories were related in more detail about “what happened” rather than “what exactly made this work”.

    This got me thinking… why don’t we pin point the source of success with the same attention and effort we do causes of failures?

    Could be that we don’t analyze success with the same interest because… well, it worked… what is there to analyze further? Sure, I get it.

    However, just like not all steps undertaken when we make a mistake are necessarily causes of our failure, not all steps that were undertaken when we succeed necessarily meaningfully lead to our success.

    And just like we identify root causes of mistakes so that we don’t repeat them, we should seek out the root causes of success… so that we can repeat them.

  • We can’t do Agile.

    Over the years, I’ve heard many variations of “we can’t do Agile”:

    Agile doesn’t allow for proper thoughtful design.
    Our project \ organization is too big to do Agile.
    Agile is really just a dev thing.
    Agile just isn’t reality.

    I realize that behind every single “we can’t do Agile” statement, there’s a story. My intent here isn’t to delve into the stories of Agile woe… rather, I would like to open a small crack for the “we can’t do Agile” crowd.

    Consider…

    1. Have you ever stopped yourself from sending an email, and instead decided to walk over and have a conversation with a team mate?

    2. Have you ever argued to make the right fix on your project, even if it went against the requirements \ spec document?

    3. Have you ever sought out feedback from your customer or end user in order validate your understanding of a project?

    4. Have you ever adjusted your project plan in light of new feedback (user based or technological)?

    If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you successfully “did Agile”! Consider the values of Agile below and review the questions above again respectively…

    1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

    2. Working software over comprehensive documentation

    3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

    4. Responding to change over following a plan

    Viewed in the light of Agile values, many teams are already adopting Agile methods… albeit implicitly. Embracing these values in a more explicit fashion opens a door of possibilities… among these possibilities would be to let go of the idea that “we can’t do Agile”.

  • Seeking Feedback: Value of the Agile Coach

    Recently, I have been deconstructing with curiosity my role as an Agile Coach.

    Let me begin by saying how committed I am personally and professionally to the deeper understanding of Agile and Lean. Putting these values and principles into practice over the past few years has given my work meaning in so many ways. 

    That being said, I have failed to appreciate the importance of how the organization views these skills…

    I believe that a good Agile coach acts almost imperceptibly.  Building courage, simplicity, communication, feedback and respect… all that a coach does in order to build a stronger and more effective team might not be obvious. Indeed, as coaches, we can become so focused on the success of the team that we may risk neglecting looking after our interests within the organization.

    That is to say, there may not be clear evidence of the coach’s value to the organization. So while executives may recognize the improved effectiveness of the team, they mistakenly begin to assume that the coach’s skills have been captured by the team itself.  They then conclude that this process can be reproduced (rubber stamp like) to other teams.  To borrow Dave Snowden’s analogy… they believe that “having a good recipe” is the same as “having a good chef”.

    As practitioners of evidence based learning and progress, how do Agile coaches provide evidence of their value to an organization?  Is this even skillful or necessary to do so? I look forward, dear readers, to your feedback…

  • 2013 Retrospective

    At this time of year, it’s worthwhile taking stock of our lives… to do a retrospective of sorts. To collect both accomplishments and gratitudes for the year….

    Tip: Skip past the bullet points if you are quickly seeking the punchline.

    • I received generous support and guidance from @eegrove who helped me to define the role of an Agile coach within the context of my work at Corel.
    • I spoke about UX from a developer’s point of view at NSNorth. I also met and reconnected some dedicated iOS / Mac developers and had a few pints with some brilliant people.
    • I joined an excellent group of volunteer organizers at Agile Ottawa and co-hosted a Fail Faire event with @BillyGarnet and@simbourk.
    • I attended Agile Coach Camp Canada in Toronto, where I gave a lightning talk on Agile Teaching and proposed and lead an Agile 101 session.
    • I completed Coaching Agile Teams training with @lyssaadkins and @mspayd. This class helped me to better understand, take ownership have confidence in my skills and abilities as an Agile Coach and, looking back on it, was a life changing experience for me.
    • I started to blog and am proud to say that I’ve put together 18 posts that I feel add value to the Agile community in their own small way.
    • I created and gave a presentation that summarizes 6 different software development methodologies in under one hour using nothing more than a marker and a whiteboard as a visual aid. I’m happy to say that the feedback from this presentation was very positive.
    • I helped my former team at Corel to complete a significant re-architecture of a large legacy code base. I also created a spirit of collaboration, sharing and trust on the team by facilitating, coaching, mentoring and teaching Agile values, principles and methods.
    • After being laid off from Corel in early December, I interviewed at a few startups and, while the job hunt continues, this experience has given me the opportunity to meet some energized and inspiring folks doing good work.
    • I’ve received career and life coaching and support from my dear friend @spydergrrl … over twitter, over the phone and over lattes.
    • On a personal note, my 4 year old started school this year and it’s been a pleasure to watch her grow out of a toddler and into a little girl with thoughts and opinions all her own. I feel privileged to be part of her journey through life.
    • On another personal note, to my partner in love and life… it’s been a year full of distractions, but I’m lucky to have someone that I can be completely honest with…for all the good, the bad and (sometimes) the ugly sides of me.

    So what does listing some my accomplishments and gratitudes do for me? It helps me to take a deep breath when I feel that I’m not fast enough, smart enough, energized enough, or <enter perfect person quality here> enough… I can tell you that I will be coming back to this list a few times during 2014 to remind myself that I am… indeed… enough… and that I am very very lucky to be surrounded by such amazing people.

    What improvements would I bring forward to 2014? Clarity, simplicity and courage in my own thoughts, words and actions. Love, compassion and respect to those who matter in my life. Mindfully choosing with awareness where I give my energy in those empty hours when I’m all alone with my own thoughts.

    Ok… well… maybe these are more life goals than yearly goals… but if Agile has taught me anything, it’s that when you are faced with uncertainty, you need to be able to lean hard on your values.

    Wishing you the very best in 2014. Thanks for reading 😀

  • Backlog Baggage

    I’d like to suggest a radical strategy for backlog management.  The strategy is simple, whenever you review an item and opt not to consider it for active work, destroy it.  Yes, you heard me, set fire to the blighter!

    This might seem a little extreme at first glance, but I think the logic behind it is pretty straight forward.  First, by keeping it, you are implicitly saying that anything new that you will learn as you work is less important than the thing you just said no to.  Secondly, by keeping it, you are also implicitly saying that you have no feedback mechanism whereby the item could come back to you without constantly collecting and reviewing it <insert Gollum sounds here>.  And don’t get me started with the cost of maintaining all that baggage if you opt to keep it.  Believe me, I understand that we love our precious items…  I do.  But a backlog item just doesn’t have value unless it’s being worked on meaningfully right now.

    With the year end looming, this might be a good time to simply grab all that baggage in your backlog and toss it out.  Trusting that if any item was really important, it will come back to you quite naturally in good time.