The changing role of the agile coach

Yesterday I visited the Scrum Facilitators meet-up. Aim of this this session was to promote the XP2023 conference that will be held in Amsterdam later this year. We like to emphasise that you can propose a session until 12 Februari. Please share your story by suggestion a topic on the conference website.

During the meetup I shared my story about the changing role of the agile coach, an experience report I made for a previous edition of the conference. The report can be found on the agile alliance website. In my presentation I used the ‘waves of agile’ from my book to explain that organization face different challenges when the progress on their agile journey. I am very pleased that two of the participants want to use this model in their organization. “I just had a discussion this morning, about this”, one of them replied,” This is just what we need to understand where we are and challenges we encounter”.  When the needs of the organization develops, so should the role of the agile coach. I shared three profiles that help to develop yourself as agile coach.

Sjoerd Kranendonk of Scrum Facilitators made a 11 min podcast about the event. Check it out.

SF NY KO AF – XP2023 Special

SF NY KO AF stands for the Scrum Facilitators New Year Kick Off AmersFoort

In this meetup, we are collaborating with XP 2023 conference to bring you the latest insights from experience reports and help you share your experience. I will be sharing my XP presentation about the changing role of the Agile coach. This was an Experience report for the conference where I explained the waves of agile and how this gives insight in the various roles that agile coaches can embrace. With this info you understand your personal preference, understand the needs of the organisation and match the skills of the agile coach group accordingly.

We will also discuss the process of proposing and speaking on the conference. Derk-Jan wil provide tips on how to write your proposal. When your submission is accepted you’ll get a shepherd assigned to help you to write your experience report. A unique service that helps you te tell a better story. I will share his knowledge and findings in detail with us in this Meetup about the changing role of the agile coach. After that we’ll discuss the journey and the benefits of applying for the call-for paper and speaking at the conference! I will share my experience as speaker, reviewer and shepherd.

I am glad to work with Sjoerd Kranendonk and Ziryan Salayi on this meet-up. More info and registration on the meet-up site of the Scrum facilitators

How to make an impact as project manager in an Agile environment

Last week I had the opportunity to host a session on the IPMA VAKdag Back to Basics which was held on Tuesday 17 November 2022 in Amersfoort. The conference was focusing on the ICB competence model for project managers. I was asked to tell about agile and thought this to be a nice challenge. What do you tell project managers about agile? That there are neither projects and project managers in agile? Precisely that!

But I wanted to turn the talk into something use-full. So, I offered a solution. To add value as project manager you have to understand agile and have an understanding of the challenges the teams are dealing with. It doesn’t work project managers ignore the content and the struggles of the team and superimpose deadline pressure on them. The wave model that I introduced in my book serves as a tool to identify challenges that are relevant. Secondly, I suggested to use the competence model to identify skills and knowledge that may be relevant when searching and implementing solutions for that challenge. This enables project managers to step forward and contribute to the value flow.

The message was received well and with IPMA we will see if we can organise a follow-up on the session. In the meanwhile I’ll share my slides below.

2022 IPMA Vakdag- Back to Basic v02 – compressed for handout.pptx from Derk-Jan de Grood

The Full circle of Test Automation

In 2021 I collaborated with Eric de Graaf and Rene van Veldhuijzen on a presentation about test automation. Although we streamed this presentation during the QA&Testing Conference in Bilbao. I never put it online. Recently Rene asked me for the file, and I decided to share it with more widely. In this presentation Eric and Rene help me to discuss the impact that maturity has on the introduction of test automation.

Day 2 of the NIMA Masterclass Agile Marketing

Together with Marc Nieman, Misha van Hamersveld and Roald Tichelaar and Marielle Roozemond we provide the NIMA Mastercourse Agile Marketing Transformation. In this masterclass we discuss the agile mindset that most marketing teams adopt in the coming years to keep their way of work in line with the developments in the organisation and beyond.

Last week Marc, Misha. Marielle and Roald hosted day one of the masterclass (see photo). Today I teamed-up with Marielle and Misha for the final day of the training. We discussed the shift from marketing campaigns towards continues learning and the transformation of communication styles. We had good interaction and interesting discussions with the participants. A great day, and I can’t wait to repeat this training again early next year.

NIMA Mastercourse Agile Marketing Transformation

Together with Marc Nieman, Misha van Hamersveld and Roald Tichelaar and Marielle Roozemond we provide the NIMA Mastercourse Agile Marketing Transformation. How do you give concrete substance to the mindset shift that marketing teams will go through in the coming years to keep their way of work in line with the developments in the organisation and beyond?

This week Marc, Misha. Marielle and Roald hosted day one of the masterclass (see photo).

Next Tuesday I team up with Marielle to do day 2 of the training. I will host a workshop on continues improvement where the marketeers will move away from campaigns that are designed upfront. We will define risk based experiments (or tests if you like to call them) to learn and validate your approach.

Will be fun, I am looking forward to the event.

Back to Basic? – Presentation on the IPMA Day

Delivering valuable solutions becomes more difficult as organizations grow. The structures of the organization then pose a challenge to the agile way of working: challenges that change as organizations make progress on their Agile journey.

At the IPMA VAKdag Back to Basics on Tuesday 17 November 2022, Derk-Jan de Grood will share his insights on how to deal with this in a flexible way.

Listen to his 2-minute introduction (in dutch) to why this VAKdag session can add value for you!

Quality time in Copenhagen

QNation organized a breakfast session in the Copenhagen Aquarium and asked me to introduce my book “The waves of Agile”. We were quite pleased with the large amount of people that signed up for the session. We had a full room as well as a lively and interactive session. I talked about agile transformations, the waves of agile and Built-in Quality. My core message was that the nature of the transformation changes as organization progress on their agile journey and that agile coaches, leaders or quality engineers that understand the waves can contribute to a better value delivery and make an impact. Below you find a few pictures of the session. It was great to see you being involved, to meet some of my local friends and answer your questions afterwards.

Test management in Agile – Full day tutorial on the Agile Testing Days in Chicago

Place: Chicago,

Conference: The Agile Testing Days

Date: June 06, 2022

Jan Jaap Cannegieter and I are thrilled to give our tutorial test management in Agile in real life again. Join us at the Agile Testing Days in Chicago this June…and learn how to be of value as a testmanager, how to create practical test strategies and organise your testing. Whether you are a test co-ordinator, manager or just have the quality focus, we’ll can’t wait to share our experiences and stories. More info can be found on the conference website. Book your seat now!

Quality time by Qnation in the Copenhagen Aquarium

I am thrilled to be invited to the Quality time session organised by Qnation. The session will be held on a special location, the national aquarium of Denmark. While we look out over the sea, I will tell you about my new book; the waves of agile. I’ll and share his ideas on how to deliver value, explain why working agile is hard when applied in medium and large organizations, but also provide some solutions.

Agile adoption comes in waves, and I am looking forward to provide tips for Agile coaches and leaders and quality ambassadors to combine forces and guide your organization into the next wave of Agile. Are you an agile leader, agile coach or agile tester? Are you interesting to gain more insight in how to adopt the agile way of working and built quality in your product, then attend this seminar?

I heard the room is filled by now, and Qnation had to extended the number of participants already. Maybe there is some place left. Details can be found on the event page

Podcast Technology Leads

Dutch: In de podcast serie “Technology Leads” praten Tom van de Ven, Rik Marselis en Daniel Laskewitz je bij over nieuwe technologie. Regelmatig nodigen zij gasten uit om hun visie op nieuwe technologie te delen. Ik was te gast bij de heren in hun virtuele studio en we hadden een leuk gesprek over mijn Boek “the waves of Agile”.

Naast het boek bespreken we Introverte vs Extraverte teams, de kennis die je opdoet tijdens het schrijven van een boek en het beland van dingen transparant en bespreekbaar maken. Verder hebben Tom van de Ven , Daniel Laskewitz en Rik Marselis tech nieuwtjes over de James Webb telescoop, Agile for dummies en “maskeraid”.

Dank je wel Tom, Rik en Daniel voor het leuke gesprek! De tijd vloog om. Wil je deze podcast beluisteren, dat kan op spotify of apple podcast, of gebruik deze link om te luisteren:
https://lnkd.in/dz4iXHi

English: In the podcast series “Technology Leads” Tom van de Ven, Rik Marselis and Daniel Laskewitz talk to you about new technology. They regularly invite guests to share their vision of new technology. I was a guest of the gentlemen in their virtual studio and we had a nice conversation about my book “the waves of Agile”.

In addition to the book, we discuss Introverted vs Extroverted teams, the knowledge you gain while writing a book and the value of making things transparent and open to discussion. Furthermore,  Tom van de Ven , Daniel Laskewitz en Rik Marselis share tech news about the James Webb telescope, Agile for dummies and “masquerade aid”.

Thank you Tom, Rik and Daniel for the nice conversation! Time flew by. If you want to listen to this podcast (in Dutch) , you can do that on spotify or apple podcast, or use this link to listen:

PODCAST- Moments with MUM

Together with IPMA Lieke Sluis Hoogerwerf and I recorded a second podcast. This episode deals how to deal with the gab between theory and the daily practise that is not aways easy to shape and mold to you liking. How do you get people interested and motivated ? One thing is certain…..a good conversation about what is the team values in the collaboration does wonders!

Samen met IPMA hebben Lieke Sluis Hoogerwerf en ik een tweede podcast opgenomen. In deze aflevering wordt uitgelegd hoe je omgaat met de kloof tussen theorie en de dagelijkse praktijk die niet altijd gemakkelijk te vormen en te kneden is naar jouw smaak. Hoe krijg je mensen geïnteresseerd en gemotiveerd? Een ding is zeker…..Één ding is zeker…..een goed gesprek over wat je belangrijk vindt in de samenwerking doet wonderen!

See the short promo below, or listen to the full podcast (both are in Dutch):

Aginext Conference 2022 Global

On thursday 28 April I will be speaking on the Aginext Global event. Aginext hosts a community event by and for agile practitioners. This year the conference consist out of two full days:one day fully online and one day fully in person, a sort of anti-hybrid, in order to leverage our two lovely communities. 

I am proud to be contributing with a session on the online event. Check out the schedule on the conference website.

“We need to understand the scope of this freaky thing.”

Recently I had an interview with Marcella Koopmans about the book “Waves of agile, value delivery in medium and large organizations. Marcella lives in New Zealand and is the head of Agile for her company. She is an Agile enthusiastic and likes to focus on the human aspects of the transformation. In the interview she states that there is a need for a fundamental understanding of the transformation since it impacts a lot of aspects of the organisation: “We need to understand the scope of this freaky thing.”

Recording a podcast for IPMA

Last week I recorded a new podcast with Lieke Sluis-Hoogerwerf. It’s the sequel to the podcast we did together last year. In the previous podcast we explored how is needed for successful agile transformations and how to get on the same wavelength with each other. This time we discussed how to gain mutual understanding. The first podcast (in Dutch) can be listened to on the ipma site.

For this second podcast we set up the studio and shot some video as well. I don’t know when it will be released, but I can share a nice picture of the set-up… to be continued.