Almost any improvement method is hailed as the best way to save busi-ness from problems when it is new. Unfortunately, a few years later, this same method is now the reviled, flawed method that a new method is replacing. This parable tells how this happens.

On my recent visit to Wellington I was talking to some colleagues working with government departments interested in Agile. It was a bit of an eye opening experience and given the AgileNZ Conference in Wellington is only 2 weeks away is something I would like to start talking about.

So…. can Agile work in government?

Recently I was fortunate enough to attend a workshop by the legendary Donald Reinertsen called “The Science of Lean Product Development”. The workshop was part of QCon San Francisco 2011.

What happens to the role of the Business Analyst in an increasingly Agile world? I tried to answer this question a few years ago in a Modern Analyst Article and now having been through a number of Scrum implementations it seems like a good time to reflect on these predictions.

With a transition from Waterfall to Scrum the role of the Business Analyst changes and my opinion improves for a number of reasons.

A number of people have been asking us recently what the difference is between the old Scrum Alliance style courses and the new professional Scrum curriculum at Scrum.org.  In the blog post I will try to answer this question!

Recently I have been helping a fellow Scrum practitioner with a strategy for working with a client who is determined that Scrum cannot deliver fixed date projects. The company has made wonderful leaps forward using Scrum but under pressure the evil, highly ingrained habits of predictive, deterministic thinking emerge and the company now risks the rocket we launched falling back down to earth as gravity drags them back to the same of way they have always done things.

Thursday 28th September saw Clarus facilitate a workshop specifically focused on the use of Agile within the embedded software arena.

For the last two years we have had an exclusive relationship with the Scrum Foundation. This commercial relationship meant that we managed all training in New Zealand for the Scrum Foundation. It has had some wonderful moments; bringing Scrum co-founder Jeff Sutherland to New Zealand twice was certainly a highlight. However, this relationship came at a price. It prevented Clarus, a New Zealand owned and operated company, from providing any form of certified Scrum training in our own back yard.

After a prolonged effort to negotiate a win-win, we are sad to say our relationship with the Scrum Foundation is now over. Unfortunately we were not able to negotiate a situation that allowed Clarus to be able to provide training to the local market while also being able to bring out trainers from the Scrum Foundation.

There was a shockwave of disbelieve and anxiety on Saturday night as the New Zealand rugby public saw their heroes handed a loss by a very energised and deliberate Wallabies side. The All Blacks lost the game for one reason and one reason only – an inability to change tactics to meet the scene in front of them. And this isn’t the first time they have suffered this flaw either. The funny thing is that it has striking similarities to software projects.

It seems everyone is obsessed with Scrum tools these days. Every time we run a Scrum course people ask “what tools do you recommend?” The answer is always the same – whiteboards, index cards and post-it notes. The reasons for this are many. In my coaching work I see team after team try one of the myriad of tools available and the result is almost always the same – a slow Scrum uptake. Why is this?

Agile Australia was a really good event this year. Quite a reasonable sized contingent of Kiwis made it over the ditch to Sydney to enjoy what was a really good few days of complete Agile immersion.

The highlight for me was Alistair Cockburn. I attended his Advanced Agile pre-conference workshop and really enjoyed hearing another perspective on Agile. It was particularly relevant to study with another one of the original Agile Manifesto signatories during a celebratory 10^th year since its inception.

Here are some of my learnings from the two days. I have posted them here as something of interest for the Agile community that could not attend.

On 26^thMay four Clarus staff delivered a presentation outlining some of the lessons we have had learned using Scrum at a range of companies throughout New Zealand. It was a capacity session.

Thanks to Dynamic Controls for providing the venue and to the ANZTB and Clarus for sponsorship.