The official nominations for the Agile Alliance are out, and I’m on the list. My position statement is below, but there are a couple of other things I want to add.
There were two key reasons I am interested in being a part of the board. The first is because I am not a consultant, and I want to see more industry people on the board. This means that we as an industry have to see membership to these kinds of things as important and be willing to make the time for our people to be a part of it. It’s a shame that the board has to be made up with primarily consultants because they can modify their schedules to make the time work.
The second is the bridge across the groups. If you look out onto the agile landscape, there are so many choices and it keeps growing – Agile Alliance, Scrum Alliance, APLN, the Lean Consortium, etc. Each is important, but there’s no reason that we shouldn’t all be collaborating so that people can find the information they need without having to jump through lots of hoops.
There are, of course, changes that I think need to be brought about as well. I am interested to see who the board ends up being and the directions we’ll be able to take the Agile Alliance in.
My official position statement is below. If you are an Agile Alliance member and would like to vote, you can come to the Agile Alliance board meeting Tuesday night of Agile 2009, or vote online. You can also see the full list of people running.
My passion lies in the community. I’ve founded or run several user groups across the country, participated or organized code camps and events (including the TDD Firestarter and Day of Ruby events in Florida). In addition, I’ve worked with the Scrum Alliance as their Global Community Liaison to bring a common voice to the community of Scrum professionals worldwide.
I am most excited by this position because of the chance to bridge the gaps in the communities we have. Too many times there is the feeling one must pick a camp – Agile, Scrum, Lean, APLN. But because of the duplication of efforts in some fronts, we miss out on the broader goal – to help people deliver valuable, high-quality software to their customers. Through my work at the Scrum Alliance, the Agile Alliance, and the reaching out to other communities, I believe we can foster change and find common ground while still delivering effective programs and working to further the goals set forth by the board.
My background is as both a software developer and coach. I currently lead a software team inside a large international organization and work closely with the executives and teams across the globe to better the way we write and deliver our software. In addition to my community contributions, I’m involved in the Software Craftsmanship movement, and come to the board as someone who is not a consultant but an employee working to bring change from the inside-out.