Juhu, ich bin ein #SAFe #Agilist.

Ich finde, das klingt irgendwie umstürzlerisch. Irgendein Innenminister wird mich bestimmt deswegen von irgendeinem Verfassungsschutz beobachten lassen wollen.

Heute und morgen ist wiedermal ganztägig Schulbankdrücken angesagt. Leider online, nicht F2F. Und nicht zu verwechseln mit dem etwas beliebteren Bank- oder Armdrücken.

#SAFe #LeadingSAFe #Agilist #transformation

My overdue #introduction:
I’m a middle-aged guy in the DC area with a partner and two labs. I’m a #smarthome geek. A #disney freak.
I’m a bit #OCD. I’m a procrastinator. I’m a #grammar stickler.
I’m a #digitalexperience consultant—a certified #agilist with #ux tendencies. A #podcaster and occasional blogger. A #vacationrental owner. I’m a Mac. But I miss #WindowsMediaCenter.
I’m here for the folks with interesting things to say—not just endless boosts of others’ thoughts or links to other sites.

So, I'm a #Scrum Master for my security team. I'm technically just an analyst, so I don't have much power to implement changes or adapt processes internally to the team. I've also been reading up as much on #Agile, Scrum and #Lean processes and how these concepts were actually developed.

One thing that I noticed about the books like "The Phoenix Project" and "The Goal", the people actually pushing the transformation are Vice Presidents of either a division or a manufacturing plant. They actually have power to do these changes. And from talking with others, the idea that "Agile is Dead" or that "Agile doesn't work", it seems that most companies fail in the actual implementation. It can't really be done from the bottom up, but has to come from top down. Certifications like "Certified Scrum Master" generally push people to memorize specific processes, but not actually critically think on how these can be customized and implemented in their organization. What you get is "Cargo Cult Agile". People think that you have to fit your company into "the" Agile infrastructure that they've learned, and not adapting Agile to the company needs.

I've come across new job positions like "Chief Agile Officer", "Chief Agilist", or just #Agilist. So what does that mean? Well, like I said, you need to implement Agile from the top down. Where changes in processes are identified and pushed down. Same with understanding various change management methodologies in order to help with this. I think this is a good structure to actually push Agile in a serious manner. The Agilist should know how to listen to various team members and help identify the processes and how some agile techniques can be implemented to improve things. You don't only adapt your organizational practices, but also Agile methodologies to your needs. And that's a major issue regarding #cargocultagile, when you don't understand the foundations of a methodology, you can't really understand how and why they were implemented. So you're just doing something by wrote memory.

I think companies should really look into how seriously they're implementing such changes. Just stating you're going Agile, and training some project managers is not enough. You're also potentially giving those project managers more power over changing procedures. Just because you have some certifications, doesn't mean you understand the foundations how how Agile works. The result is your staff would be pushing a model of Agile that might not work, and depending on the change management system you implement (IF you even implement one), you'll end up with a failed Agile implementation. Some Agile changes might stick, but management & C-Levels will just stay that it doesn't work and will drop the initiative. In the end, that creates the mentality that "Agile doesn't work".

Thanksgiving prep has started. Like any good #agilist, I have my goals identified! What's your favorite Thanksgiving activity - other than eating?