Welcome to the Coalition! Introduce yourself :-)

#249

Howdy, everyone. I was at the event Tuesday and was blown away by the thoughtfulness and depth of topics being discussed and jumped in here to keep up with the conversation!

I’m Dallas Walker, and I’m in the process of a career shift right now from ten years in the Culinary industry. I got fed up of the poor team dynamics and inefficient labor-to-pay ratio and am polishing myself up right now to get into the Web/Software Dev market soon!

I’m a life-long problem-solver and leader who loves learning; my life goal is to work on substituting competitive models for co-operative ones. This community is SUPER enthralling to me, as the methods discussed here fit right in line with my intuitive sense of what a solid team environment should look like, and I can’t wait to be able to fit into such a system and start working towards being a part of a well-oiled human machine! Thanks again for the great event and the invite to this community!

#250

Welcome to the fold, Dallas. You definitely have come to a place for lively discussion by people that consistently blow me away.

You know what? Neither can I. :smiley: I might not be well-oiled, but working towards being in a team that makes a difference makes every day a little special.

Dive into the conversations. Ask questions and engage. I look forward to chatting.

#251

Welcome aboard Dallas! Like Brad said, feel free to jump right in, we welcome the conversation!

#252

We’re starting a new experiment… using Patreon.com to crowd-source funding to help support the AU mission by covering our fixed overhead: hosting costs.

Become a Patron!

#253

Hi Everyone!

I’m a Scrum Master at Hyland Software in the Cleveland, OH area. I followed a thread on Linkedin that lead me to this treasure trove and I’m super excited to be able to connect and collaborate with other Agile Enthusiasts. In terms of personas, I would have to say that I am some sort of Susan the Scrum Master and David the Developer hybrid.

I have been on my Agile journey for 3 years. I started as a tester on a scrum team and became that team’s part time Scrum Master. The Agility Enablement group at my company was influencing through “guerilla tactics” at the time and my QA manager quickly discovered the value a full time Scrum Master could provide. I became a Scrum Master for two more teams while still having a QA Analyst title, helping to pave the way for the Agility Enablement team to create Full Time Scrum Master roles in our company. Since then, we’ve embarked on a full blown Agile transformation at our company and I now support multiple teams both independent and part of SAFe programs.

I love experimenting with my teams and showing them the importance of Agile as a mindset. It’s important for me to help open a team’s eyes to engineering practices as well as process improvements. Being the team’s therapist and conscience is probably the most rewarding aspect of this role that gets overlooked in most SM “job descriptions” :grinning: The relationships that we cultivate whether it’s with the development team, the Product Owner, or those Executive leaders or influencers is so paramount to what we do but so easily overlooked. To do that well, I’ve found that I rely heavily on mentors and there are great people in the Agile Community that are gracious in lending their time and knowledge and I’m excited to have found another avenue to expand my network of colleagues.

I was lucky to have been selected to be a part of the Women in Agile2017 Lightning Talks for new and inexperienced speakers. I was teamed with a mentor to help prepare for the talk as well as introduced to a group of “Power House” :sunglasses: Women that have since changed my perspective and influenced me in ways they’ll never know. I look forward to connecting to more strong Women (and Men) in Agile and exchanging tips and tricks.

Thanks for letting me introduce myself!

#254

Hi there, I’m Terry the Trainer :wink: Agile and Scrum trainer from Germany doing certification and introductory classes, some more advanced ones as well if I get the chance. Companies and organizations I’ve worked for are from various backgrounds, such as IT startups, military, university / academia. I’m also doing open classes with training provider companies. I have several years of training experience, but started out with software (JIRA mainly), from there I somehow got to Scrum and Agile about a year ago, after some experience as a practitioner in software rollout projects. By now I’ve decided to be dedicated to training and some consulting. And so far, I really enjoy teaching the concepts.

Not necessarily looking for new clients as I have two small children and want to maintain some work-life balance as well. I’m really here to exchange information and experience in the hopes to be able to continuously grow and improve as a trainer.

Glad to have found this forum and hope to meet many like-minded people. Grabbing a beer while I’m here, too. Have a great day!

#255

Hi Linda, what you say about therapist is so true! Many people are so glad to find someone to talk to about their daily woes. And that’s so understandable.

Congrats on being a speaker at Women in Agile2017, sounds intriguing! I’ll definitively check that out - as long as the roles of PO and SM are so often referred to as “He is…” / “He does…” out there I always think “well, okay, still some way to go here”
:wink:

Also, I found this forum the same way that you did. Maybe it was even the same LinkedIn thread? 8)

#256

Welcome. It sounds like your organization is making great strides towards an agile transition. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you listen to the podcasts: http://podcast.agileuprising.com/ You’ve only hit the top layer of the treasure trove! :grin:

#257

Welcome @lindapodder ! I’m looking forward to hearing more about your experiments and hearing you speak at some Agile2018 events. What topics are you thinking about?

#258

HI @AnLeBe and @lindapodder,

I really look forward to learning from both of your experiences. And whilst I can’t drink beer, I will happily share a libation of some variety.

Welcome

#259

Agree… if you have something to add, this thread might gain from it: Gender Diversity... it's about all of us every day!

#260

@lindapodder your audio from your talk was aired on the Agile Uprising Podcast. It was great meeting you in person at the Women in Agile event. http://po.st/SzHrJX

#261

Howdy all - My name is Jen Frahm and I’m an organisational change practitioner based in Melbourne, Australia. I came to the Coalition from the podcast, which I have been fan of for sometime now. Increasingly my work has focused on agile themes and projects. I spoke at Agile Australia a couple of years ago on translating OCM for Agile (or how can a change practitioner add value to agile initiatives). My favourite quote is “As I learn, so do I teach, as I teach so do I learn” and that kinda sums up my life in agile at the moment! I do a lot of public speaking, published a book this year and I also host a podcast (Conversations of Change).

Outside of professional life I get very enthusiastic about wine, cooking, bushwalking and way too many TV series. Ya gotta shut off some-how.

#262

Heya Jen,

Pleased to see another Aussie on the boards. I have to ask, which reason and varietal is your poison for wine?

Welcome

#263

Alas @bradstokes I am varietally promiscuous and share the Jen love around many wineries and varieties. With the exception of Sauvignon Blanc. A gal has to have some standards. I do offer a special affection for champagne, a buttery chardonnay and a rich cab sav… (and thank you for the welcome :slight_smile: )

#264

Ha! What a trip :slight_smile: It was great to meet you too!

#265

Thanks! I’m trying to put together something on “A Day in the Life of a Scrum Master”. I’d like to highlight the fact that we’re not just event facilitators and showcase all the cool things we do with our teams. I found a really cool resource from a thread I was following on LinkedIn http://scrummasterchecklist.org/pdf/ScrumMaster_Checklist_12_unbranded.pdf that is helping to guide my outline.

#266

OK, since I volunteered for a podcast I guess I’ll introduce myself :grin:

My name is Bob Bartz, currently a Scrum Master at PNC Bank in Pittsburgh. I’ve worked in the Agile space as a Scrum Master/BA/QA since 2010 and fortunately am now with an organization that fully embraces agility at all levels. I first found out about this forum from @Scrummando after the Heart of Agile conference last year, and I can’t thank him enough for it.

To say I’ve learned a lot of techniques and methods that have helped me improve my professional life is an understatement. All the podcasts, especially the Manifesto signer series, are great to hear and I really appreciate them. Before visiting here, I never heard of “The Goal” or “The Phoenix Project”. I’ve read them both and am now working on “The DevOps Handbook”. I never heard of Deming, and now I’ve read a lot of about his findings and take them to heart on a regular basis. @andycleff I love the regular quotes from him you share since he always seems to be right!

Anyway, thanks again to all that make this place possible and I hope I can contribute where I can. It’s always nice to hear about other folks on their own journeys.

#267

Glad to have you on board, Bob!!!

Also good to know there’s at least one org in the US that fully embraces agility at all levels :slight_smile:

Share with us how that happened, we can steal from it…

HOA brought a lot of us together one way or another… so more props and kudus to @Scrummando @cusack and others who made it possible.

Looking forward to hearing more about your journey - work + life …

And when your night stand starts to run low on books, we have plenty more as a group that we’ve loved…

I also have my own list going, with some overlap of the above:

And I’m sure you’ve got some you’ve read that we should pick up as well…

#268

Dear Coalition,

My name is Bogdan and I work in Amsterdam at the HEINEKEN Headquarters. My job is to transform teams (split currently plan-build-run) into Agile product teams that would get to manage the entire lifecycle of the product.

I’ve been exposed to Scrum since 2013 and started in the last couple of years with some Kanban experiments. Next to that, I have been doing Lean 6 Sigma projects for quite a while.

If I look at the personas you guys have created and my own organization, I recognize myself as “Fred, the Frustrated Practitioner”.

Good to be here! Thanks for creating this Agile bubble for the likes of us.