A few months ago, Els asked me -after being together for 16 years- to marry her.

So this WE we are getting married.

Because most of my friends live in agile land across the globe (and we are not giving a mega party), I looked for a way to give something back to this community that supported me so much the last years.

This WE, you can buy our “who is agile” book at half the price.

If you use the coupon AgileMarriage, you can buy it for 2.99 instead of 5.49.

The book now contains 65 people. We will continue till the fibonacci nr 89.

It’s an agile book, so when you buy the e-book this WE, you will receive FREE updates untill 89 people.

For the last 19 weeks, we have been publishing an update weekly.

To make it easy, I define WE from 25/05/2012 till 28/05/2012.

Yves & Els

A few years back one of the multiple Belgium agile community organisations invited Bjarte to talk about his book Beyond Budgeting. Unfortunately Yves could not go. As a kind of consolation Yves bought the book. Bjarte is not working in IT and you could say that he is not an agilist. But remember that agile is about the mindset and Bjarte clearly has an agile mindset.

With Beyond Budgeting, Bjarte and his friends from BBRT have done the same to accounting as we are doing to IT and project management. When our friends at ALE2011 were looking for outsiders to invite to the conference, Yves was really happy Bjarte was among the names proposed. And when the conference organisers approached Bjarte, he did not hesitate to accept the invitation and fit a flight to Berlin into his tight schedule to share his message and experience with a bunch of enthusiast.

What is something people usually don’t know about you but has influenced you in who you are?

Although I am a finance guy with some HR experience, I actually have a short “IT career”. In the late eighties I headed up Statoil’s implementation of a new accounting system (Horisonten, a great Swedish system which lasted almost ten years before it was SAPs turn…). We spent half a year fighting IT on how to run the project. We had a few words for what we didn’t want, one being “waterfall”. But we had no name for what we wanted to do instead. But we “won”, and we delivered, our way. Today, what we did has a name and is about to become the new way… It is fantastic to see all the great stuff bubbling in the agile movement. There are so many similarities with Beyond Budgeting, both on what we are rebelling against and what we aspire to become.

If you would not have been in IT, what would have become of you?

I would probably have ended up in teaching, where my entire family was/is. In this respect I am the black sheep, but I was forgiven by marrying a teacher! I actually feel my job is a lot about teaching, although the biggest part is fortunately still about learning.

What is your biggest challenge and why is it a good thing for you?

Complacency. We get so much positive feedback on what we have done at Statoil that we might think we have “done it”. Very, very dangerous. And not very good for anything, I guess.

What drives you?

Making a difference, and a positive difference, as my Irish neighbour always reminds me about. There is always a better way (and so many stupid ways – so no fear of running dry!)

What is your biggest achievement?

Not mine, but our, and still ahead of us, the day when Statoil has taken full advantage of all the great stuff we have decided and are implementing. Beyond that; being a happy and still relatively healthy guy with a great job. What more can you ask for?

What is the last book you have read?

Let me rather go for the first one instead, the first one relevant for my agile journey. Maverick by Ricardo Semler, many, many years ago. I was blown away!

What question do you think I should also ask and what is the answer?

Why vinyl is king and digital sucks. The list is too long!

Who do you think I should ask next?

Henrik M책rtensson

If you like these answers you might want to check out our book: who is agile

Kenji was invited by Diana Larsen and Henrik Kniberg.
I was at Agile 2008 when Kenji received his Gordon Pask award. During the whole week, I noticed asian people doing some strange kind of ritual. I assumed it was a zen kind of tradition. Boy was I wrong. It turned out, they were practising for his speech. He did not want to accept the price alone, he wanted his peers with him on stage. (A least that is how it came across to me.)

I had already noticed him in a session where I was impressed by his knowledge and questions.

It’s great to learn about people from other cultures buying into the agile mindset (although I have to admit, we probably borrowed more from their culture…)

What is something people usually don’t know about you but has influenced you in who you are?

There is a temple called “Eiheiji”, the head temple of the Soto Sect of Zen Buddhism near my home, and I visit there sometimes.

Eiheiji is still an active monastery with around 150 practicing Zen monks. And you can visit and see them. The most impressive thing there is that this education system has been working for over 700 years! An incredibly sustainable system.

On a wall of the corridor I found a panel saying;Without Practice, No Emergence.

Pretty agile isn’t it? In the Zen context, practice is Zen(meditation) and emergence is Satori (individual enlightenment).

You may think Satori is the goal and Zen is the means, but wrong! Dogen Zenji, the originator of Soto sect says that the two are there as one. Thus this coincidence of “thinking” and “doing” is my strong belief that supports my advocacy for agile.

If you would not have been in IT, what would have become of you?

I wanted to become a Jazz guitarist. I still like listening to Jazz music a lot. + Pat Metheny + Lee Litenour + Jim Hall + Wes Montgomery

are my giants.

What is your biggest challenge and why is it a good thing for you?

Japanese software industry is still suffering from waterfall syndrome and people struggling in hard projects. But it is always wonderful to meet positive people trying to change their environment and also themselves.

What drives you?

One thing for sure is that I like drinking with people celebrating success together. A wonderful moment of life.

What is your biggest achievement?

Japanese Agile community! Please watch my speech of Gordon Pask Award about it. And Astah, a UML and mindmapping integrated tool which is used by 460,000 people worldwide.

What is the last book you have read?

“Be the wind” a Japanese novel about a high school runner.

What question do you think I should also ask and what is the answer?

Q: What places do you recommend to foreigners visiting Japan? A: Definitely Kyoto for sightseeing, but try Toyota factory tour. They are open for visitors and English-speaking guides will escort you. I took Mary/Tom Poppendieck, Craig Larman, Bas Vodde, Gabrielle Benefield, Bent Jensen and more than 20 other Agile/Lean leaders worldwide there.

Who do you think I should ask next?

Shintaro Kakutani who is an organizer of RubyKaigi. He connects Japanese Agile community and Ruby community.

If you like these answers, please check out our book: who is agile.
In the book Kenji also answers Jerry’s Question: What is the meaning of life? 

A few years after we had created our leadership game, my father told me he had a bought a great book that he thought would interest me. He showed me Collaboration Explained.

I had already read the book. At Agile 2008, I followed a session about that from Jean. During the break before the the session she played a few versions of the song I don’t like Mondays. I was a little bit puzzled about why someone would play multiple versions of the same song during a break. I did not realize that the songs were an extra for the people already in the room. She started the session explaining why she hated Mondays. Talking about starting a session with a big bang. In a recent mail conversation Jean told me her definition of living: “For me, living is managing to hold onto all the incredible things in the face of all the challenges.” Ah, what a nice definition.

What is something people usually don’t know about you but has influenced you in who you are?

I have been learning about the power of vulnerability as I have sought to be stronger. In fact, I think I no longer seek to be “stronger.” I want to be vulnerable enough to make it okay for others to be vulnerable. I think that is true strength , not the strength I sought before.

If you would not have been in IT, what would have become of you?

I studied French in college, believe it or not. To have the opportunity to move into software and into the world in which I now engage is beyond what I could have ever imagined. I am now moving into a world where I am working to support non-profits by guiding them in how I do my work: with facilitation, with Agile, with collaboration. In that sense, I suppose you could say, that is taking me away from software in a way I never could have imagined. This is what I am becoming rather than what I would have set out to do. Now if you really want a “dream”, I would have been that gorgeous blonde former cellist in the Kronos Quartet, Joan Jeanrenaud Wow. What an incredible vocation and avocation! What an amazing woman.

What is your biggest challenge and why is it a good thing for you?

Learning to let go and to pay attention to my listening skills. This is important both as a facilitator and as a team member. As I get better and better at listening, I can only learn. I can’t help but get more insights and more perspectives. And so, I hold this as a life long challenge. Oddly, coupled with that, when I am around very strong personalities, I find I may hold back my insights so that I avoid what I might perceive as conflict. I suspect these two challenges are related. If I can listen in a healthy way, I don’t need to drop out and give up the insights my team deserves. In this regard, my challenge is to “show up”, find out what has heart and meaning to me, tell my truth about that, and then let go of the result/outcome. That is a life long journey.

What drives you?

I believe in empathy. I want to always check in on my own empathy as I seek to bring out empathy. I am an avid learner. I have so many books I read or want to read. I have a Kindle so that I can carry “my library” around with me. I also very much value helping others grow. I can often trivialize my skills. And yet I discover that when someone asks me to be a mentor, it is an honor. And, the act of mentoring and seeing someone create something bigger than the two of us, that is just so awesome.

What is your biggest achievement?

Being Jean. I think I struggled for quite a while trying to be someone who pleases everyone else at the risk of losing her own identity. I didn’t see how destructive that was. But it was. You lose an ability to reach and stretch. Such a behavior or way of thinking is so hard to break. If you don’t though, you can’t find out who you are, what your gifts are, and how you can nurture them. As I look back on my life from where I am now, I am in utter awe that I get to do what I do and be who I am. I get to be incredibly passionate about my work, my colleagues, and the communities in which I engage. I get to give. And I receive so much. And I do it being Jean. Given that I had set my sights only on others for so long and assumed so little could be true for me, it truly is my biggest accomplishment: that I am really being Jean.

What is the last book you have read?

I’m in the middle of

• Lean Startup by Eric Ries
• Escape Velocity by Geoffrey Moore
• Personal Kanban by Jim Benson
• (for fun reading) Dog Gone It, by Spencer Quinn, and I am almost done with all of them.

Do I get to say they are the last book I read?

What question do you think I should also ask and what is the answer?

Q: “What do you most value in your life?” A: “I feel so lucky to have met so many wonderful people through my career. I value how much they have taught me. I truly, deeply value my colleagues here at Rally, especially my CTO, Ryan Martens, and my CEO, Tim Miller. They have changed my life forever. I value that I have had the incredible fortune to travel all over the world to talk about things I am truly passionate about. And, I value that I actually get paid to do work that I truly love.

Who do you think I should ask next?

Jim Benson

Brenda Bao

If you like these questions, you can buy the book Who is agile. 

In the book lots of agilists are answering the same questions. And Jean is also answering:

Dale Emery’s Question: What is the gift that you currently hold in exile?

Henrik was proposed by Mary. Scrum and XP from the Trenches, Henrik’s first book, was a game-changer at multiple levels.

• The book was available for free on the internet.
• It was translated into 12 languages.
• It did not give any theory, Henrik “only” gave examples of what he did.

Henrik also started an iniative to translate the manifesto.

At the moment I am writing this, Henrik is on a 6 month round-the-world trip with his wife and 4 kids. Wow and I thought I was pushing limits moving with my 3 kids to Bordeaux for 6 months.

(Update: he wrote what he learned about the trip here. )

What is something people usually don’t know about you but has influenced you in who you are?

I spent the first 15 years of my life in Japan, spending the summers in Sweden. This has influenced me in many ways. My bicultural background helps me see things from different perspectives, and being fluent in English (I grew up attending international schools) has helped me a lot in my current career.

And I’m a pretty active musician. I play a bunch of instruments and record songs and play in several bands. One of my bands does a lot of wedding gigs, we’ve probably done over 100 wedding parties by now! Music has always been my oasis, a creative haven that provides instant flow, and shuts off that voice in my head that is constantly analyzing and reasoning about my current client, my next talk, my next article, or whatever. When working from home I take a short break every hour or so and pull off some riffs in the studio, great way to stay energized!

If you would not have been in IT, what would have become of you?

After high school, I thought I was going to become a musician, but then I realized that music might not be as fun if it is “just a job”. I pictured myself sitting in dusty studio hours on end creating silly commercial jingles or something just to earn my keep. I figured that if I have some other line of work instead, I could play music just for fun, and not worry about the commercial aspects of it. So I thought a bit about what other stuff I’m good at and like doing, and decided to pursue computer science. Turned out to be a good decision!

What is your biggest challenge and why is it a good thing for you?

Raising a big family while staying sane, happy, and relaxed. With four children age 1-8 that is a challenge! I want to have time for them, but I also want to have time for work, friends, and hobbies.

The good thing about having kids is they keep me from getting over-focused and working too hard. In fact, as I write this I’m on an extended break, travelling around the world with the whole family for 6 months. That’s both fun and challenging!

The kids also help me become a better coach. Raising kids and coaching teams is surprisingly similar – for example, both kids and adult teams are happier and more successful when they are allowed to take responsibility and manage themselves rather than being told what to do. I’m constantly learning things from my kids that I can apply at work, and vice versa.

What drives you?

Learning, creating, and teaching.

• Learning new stuff and applying it to real life situations. I’m infinitely curious, and when I find an interesting problem or challenge I have just about infinite patience and focus.
• Creating things that I am proud of – whether it is a cool new song or groove, a simple software tool that solves a real-life problem, a cartoon or illustration that clarifes a complex concept, a new book that helps others understand what I’ve been learning lately. Or even a way to run a company.
• Teaching people. Taking complex or abstract concepts, extracting the core idea, and finding simple and effective ways of spreading the knowledge to other people.

These things fit together. Learning helps me to create. Creating makes the learning stick. Teaching drives me to deepen my understanding.

What is your biggest achievement?

I’ll mention two:

1) Raising 4 kids that so far are happy and healthy.

2) Improving the software development profession, and the lives of the people involved. People all over the world tell me that my work has helped them improve things like product quality, team motivation, customer satisfaction, and even work-life balance. I’m proud and humbled (and sometimes a bit frightened) at how many people turn to me for advice, and how many people I’m reaching through my coaching, talks, and writings.

What is the last book you have read?

I recently finished Reamde, an awesome nerd-thriller book by Neil Stephenson.

I’m currently halfway through Welcome to your Child’s Brain. Helps me understand how kids reason and learn, and how I can become a better parent. Very fact-based book, lots of mythbusting too. Love it.

What question do you think I should also ask and what is the answer?

You coach, program, teach, draw, raise kids, write books, play music, and build companies. What’s the trick? How do you learn so many things?

1) Follow your heart. Do things that you are interested in, things that make you feel inspired.

2) Be self-aware. Don’t say “I don’t have time”, because you have 24 hours per day just like everyone else. Notice instead how you are spending your time. Ask yourself how you would like to spend it instead. Keep asking that question, and keep adjusting and optimizing how you spend your time. When you do the things that you love doing, you get good at it automatically. Not only that, you feel good too. And inspire those around you.

3) Focus on learning. Every time you do something (draw, write, cook, juggle, whatever), think about what you learned, and how you can do it better next time. Meet others who share your passion, compare notes and help each other improve.

I asked a really good barber once “How come you are so good at your job?”. She responded without hesitating: “Because I love what I do. And because I’ve been doing it for half a century”.

What are some of your favorite quotes?

Here are some quotes that resonate deeply with me. I guess I should limit the list, but I really do like all these quotes so I’ll give them to you and let you filter the list yourself (images/originals/icon_smile.gif) (Note from the Editor: why filter out such wisdom?)

• “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away” -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• “I don’t know what the key to success is, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody” – Bill Cosby
• “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans” – John Lennon
• “Do or do not, don’t try to convince everyone else.” – Unknown
• “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
• “Every block of stone has a statue inside of it” – Michelangelo
• “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand” – Unknown
• “We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” -Charles Kingsley
• “There are no interruptions, only mismanaged inputs” – David Allen
• “It’s not information overload, it’s filter failure.” – Clay Shirky
• “The most important decisions you make are not the things you do – but the things that you decide not to do” – Steve Jobs
• “A bad leader does the same task over and over. A good leader delegates that task. A great leader makes that task unnecessary.” – Unknown
• “Imagination is more important then knowledge” -Einstein
• “Education Is Not the Filling of a Pail, But the Lighting of a Fire” – William Butler Yeats
• “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery” – Mark van Doren
• “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” – Aristotle
• “The core skill of innovators is error recovery, not failure avoidance.” – Randy Nelson, President of Pixar
• “It is never too late to have a happy childhood”

Who do you think I should ask next?

I’d suggest one of these inspiring fellows:

• Alistair Cockburn
• Aslam Khan
• David Chilcott
• Mark Schuttleworth

If you like these answer: you can find more in our book  Who is agile. And the extra answers to

Ola’s Question: What is your favorite question right now?

Dear Friend,
You are receiving this message because I want to ask you a few things.
Currently I spend my spare time (next to organizing my marriage) putting a book together called  “Who is agile”. In “Who is agile”, you can read the answers of agilists to 9 questions.
The nice thing about “Who is agile”, is that it is written in an agile way, with one public release every week. And when you buy the e-book now, you get all the future updates for free.
Who says you can’t write a book in an agile way? If you want to do the same thing, check out our partner LeanPub.

The book has turned into a real community project. And now, I turn to my connections to ask for more help.
I would like your help to

1. Spread the word of this agile community project
2. Help us find other community projects that should be mentioned in the book
3. Help us with the translations of “Who is agile”
4. Buy the book yourself
5. Send us ideas on how we can improve the book
6. Send us a short paragraph about what you like about the book

1) Spread the word of this agile community project
For this community project to thrive, we need, aside from our core contributors, a network of people that publicly support us. Don’t worry we have enough energy to keep this going for a long time. (Our backlog contains 200 agilists.)
Will you please send out a message (mail, twitter, blog, facebook, linkedin) to your friends and ask them to check out this project.

2) Help us find other community projects that should be mentioned in the book
At this moment in the book, we mention 20 community activities. Twenty activities for a worldwide community that has existed for more than 10 years is not enough. I know there are more things going on.
Will you help us find out about them?

3) Help us with the translations of “Who is agile”
At this moment we are translating the book into:
Catalan, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish
These translation teams can use your help. And we would love to create other translations.
Will you help us find other translators?

(If you are French, you might want to contact Fabrice.)

4) Buy the book yourself
That is the easiest one. Will you go to www.leanpub.com/whoisagile and buy the book? You can set your own price between the minimum price and 29,99 Dollar.
What is the minimum price? Aha – this is where we make it complicated. We increase the minimum price by $0.50 (50 cents) every release (week). This week it is 3.49 dollar. A real bargain for a book that allows you the opportunity to learn about 80 agilists.

5) Send us ideas how we can improve the book
Once you have bought the book, we would love to hear about how we might improve the book. For example, the map, the book list and the question lists are created based on feedback from our readers.
Will you send us your most outlandish idea for Who is agile?

6) Send us a short paragraph what you like about the book
Every good book needs a few pages of people saying what they liked about the book.
We are not looking for cheesy marketing sentences. We are looking for real people expressing their genuine thoughts about our book. Will you send us your opinion about Who is agile?

Thank you so much for your attention and I hope you appreciate me sending this message.

With kind regards,
Yves Hanoulle (who could not have created this book without the help of
Andrea Chiou, Marcin Floryan, Peter Doomen and everyone answering these questions.)

PS A big thank you to Olav Maassen & Chris Matts whose mass mailing idea inspired to write this email. Please check out their Real Options book.

Update: If you are wondering why you are not in the book. Check back with me. You probably are on the backlog. To avoid a big stock of answers and waste, we only ask people when we can publish in the next month or so.

Update 2:  How to reach us? send a mail to whois at hanoulle dot be

Update 3: We have made another visualisation of the people in Who is agile  by using this map

In 2009 Alexey invited Yves to the first edition of AgileEE. Yves loves the first time a conference takes place. There is a dynamic that usually can only be found the first time. And surely that was the case at AgileEE. Yves still remembers the hallway conversation with JB. They agreed that Alexey and his team made a lot of mistakes that they could have warned him about. And you know what, it did not matter. The conference was great. And Yves would add, the things they called mistakes made the conference what it was. Their advice would have been wrong. Alexey knew perfectly what would work there. On top of that, Yves is jealous of the balance that Alexey has found between building a business and watching out for his personal life. Alexey was invited by Diana Larsen (Not published yet)

What is something people usually don’t know about you but has influenced you in who you are?

I am a free-ride skier. I am bass guitarist. I like living in a wild forest. I am not a social guy by any means. I’d had no idea I would engage myself in training and consulting activities. It still surprises me.

If you would not have been in IT, what would have become of you?

I had been preparing myself to enter a biological university before the programming virus struck me. I had been very serious about biology back in college. And then I programmed the “hello world”… And the new world replied to me.

What is your biggest challenge and why is it a good thing for you?

Well. I have a sort of a speaking impediment. When I was in the school there was no way one would make me speak in public. This caused me lot of trouble back then. Now I still do have that issue, but apparently I stopped caring about it. What I have to say became much more important than how I do that. Seems people like my speaking. I have gotten a bunch of compliments on my recent talks.

What drives you?

I am a free-rider by nature. I love new stuff. I love collaboration. I love being in a team doing something together.

What is your biggest achievement?

I was able to delegate a lot of things to my teammates that I used to do before. Like organizing conferences.

What is the last book you have read?

Four steps to epiphany by Steve Blank. Great ideas. I think the text needs serious refactoring though.

What question do you think I should also ask and what is the answer?

What are my plans for the next few years? I have no idea. I guess I’ll be between software and people. Hopefully, I’ll start a technology-oriented start-up. And most likely I will move to USA or Europe. Hate what is happening in Ukraine these days.

Who do you think I should ask next?

• Robin Dymond

• Alek Kozlov (Skype, Estonia)

• Nataliya Trenina (ScrumGuides)

• Marcin Niebudek (Agilers, Poland)

• Dusan Kocurek (ScrumDesk, Slovakia)

• Pawel Lipinski (Poland)

Niels was proposed by Grant. I have to admit I had never heard of Niels before Grant proposed him, but when I see the list of people Grant put him in (that I did know) I was intrigued. Unfortunately Grant died before I could ask him about Niels. With some googling I found that Niels taught at SkillsMatter. He even created Evolutionary Project Management (or Planning as he calls it now). Instead of me using google to find out more about Niels, why don’t we listen to the man himself?

What is something people usually don’t know about you but has influenced you in who you are?

I have no idea. Or, perhaps, that I am very risk-averse. Failure is not an option. And I made it my drive to research and teach people how never to fail in projects any more. As Cobb said in 1989 (“Cobb’s Paradox”): “We know why projects fail – we know how to prevent their failure – so why do they still fail?” I agree: Projects don’t deserve to fail. They don’t have to. Marketing this knowledge (as Cobb already indicated) is, however, not easy, as people usually think that project failure is to be expected. After all, they hardly ever get fired if a project fails.

If you would not have been in IT, what would have become of you?

I am not ’in IT’. I am helping individuals, projects and organizations to become more successful in a shorter time. I do help a lot of IT projects and I have a lot of experience in that corner, but I also help a lot of other projects. Actually, I’m an electronics engineer who is still capable of designing complex electronic systems. When coaching embedded systems development teams, this comes as a benefit.

What is your biggest challenge and why is it a good thing for you?

My biggest challenge is to get people to understand the essence of my ideas, before they are trying them out. Once people start trying them out, they see the great benefit (both for themselves and for their organization) and love it. Before they start trying them out they often resist trying. After all, they have been running projects for ages. They know how to run projects. They are using the latest project management hypes. What useful ideas could I possible add to that? What could possibly have a significant impact on their performance that they don’t know of? They seem not to have any idea what I’m talking about until they start doing it and I’m still struggling how I can explain better beforehand. It reminds me about the saying: The proof of the pudding is in the eating. How can one experience the taste of a pudding before actually eating it?

Project success depends on a lot of small but important details. If I explain all these details in a conversation or a tutorial, people don’t understand the essence of the details, because their own context is missing. To me, what I am telling about is hard practice. To them, it’s still theory, which has to be translated to their own situation. They feel uncertainty which creates resistance. That’s why, instead of doing public workshops, some 10 years ago I started Project Coaching, or what I call “Just in Time Training”: standing in the mud with the people in a project or organization, showing what to do in the current situation using these ideas. In this case I suggest we do this. In that case that. A lot of people I coached thought that what I was telling was clear and that they could easily apply it. Until I started coaching them. Then they suddenly realized that they had had no clue about what I really meant. And that what I really meant made them so much more efficient, doing a lot more in much shorter time. Example: It feels good to be getting in control of my work. It’s incredible to me that in all the time I’ve been doing this kind of work, for several different companies, no one has ever provided me with this kind of help. Recently my manager commented again that he was surprised about all the work I’ve been getting done lately, so I told him it’s due to using Evo (the label I put on everything that works better). Whether this challenge is good for me? I have no idea. Additional note: recently I started coaching a large project. The project manager said: “I’ve been a project manager for 23 years. I’ve all the diplomas. I wonder what magic you can still add to that.” A seasoned consultant hired to speed up the project said something similar: “I’ve been working as a consultant for years, helping projects with specific knowledge. With so many years experience, what can you still tell me?” Both were convinced within about an hour. The consultant said: “You didn’t waste one minute of my time!”

What question do you think I should also ask and what is the answer?

“Why don’t you use the words Agile and Lean?” I don’t use hype-words, as I don’t like the hypes which come and go. These hypes are often misused by consultants making a business out of teaching the new hype, rather than teaching how to get better results. They sell tricks rather than results and when people start trying out the tricks they think they mightily improved. Bottom line: did your project succeed in shorter time? That’s not the success the developers think they achieved. It’s what the customers think and experience. The most important metric I use is the size of the smile of the customer. A lot of Agile and Lean I see around me is neither agile nor lean. That’s why at a recent seminar, my presentations were about the ‘essence of Lean and Agile’, rather than the hype. After all, project-results pay salaries. Processes don’t. For more examples, see: What is the essence of being Lean and Agile?

What drives you?

There is so much waste in projects and organizations, to the detriment of the people’s and organization’s dignity. Furthermore, project failures are paid by all of us. That’s obvious if public organizations are involved, because they spend our taxes. It’s however also the case when private organizations waste time and money, because it makes the products we buy more expensive. I know we can do a lot about this and I try to help people to do something about this. If they want to improve (that’s the catch. As Deming already said: Survival isn’t compulsory.

What is your biggest achievement?

I don’t recall achieving big things. I think I achieve a lot of little things and most of them become so obvious to me that I don’t see them as achievements. I helped a lot of people to become more productive and they feel the excitement and are proud of it (see some testimonials, link above). After all, if people achieve more, are more successful, I have achieved my goal. One thing that comes to mind is developing Evolutionary Planning (see e.g. booklets#2 and #7, which (now I have heard about Lean) is very Lean and it is the starting point for people to become more successful.

What is the last book you have read?

Walter Shewhart: Economic control of quality of manufactured product (1932). It’s a shame that this book wasn’t used at university when I was studying electronics (1967-74). It shows, among a lot of other things, the background of the Shewhart Cycle (Design-Manufacture-Sell-Observe-Redesign), as Deming called it. Deming later called it the Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle. This is the first book about statistics that I could keep reading from start to end, as if it was an exciting novel.

Update: If you like the questions, you can read more like these in the book: who is agile

Today I presented the agile and lean mindset at #Scandev

The version I did was version 17  of this talk. (Update at this moment you still see an older version, as it takes slideshare a while to update the slides. Most of the slides are the same, so that is ok)

This version was designed for this conference, but I have given earlier versions at
- ALE 2011 (Version5) :I was asked if I wanted to do a talk about a week before the conference
- Lean & Kanban Benelux 2011 (Version 7): I proposed this talk to replace a speaker who had a delayed flight, 5 to 10 minutes before this talk was scheduled.
- Agile.Net 2011 (Version 9) : after the good experience at LKB11, I was asked to do this as the closing keynote at ADN11.
- Keynote of SDC 2011

(All other versions were internal dry run’s. With my kids or at the companies I was working at the time.)

Like with any talk or anything I do, I offer FLS (Free Lifetime Support) on this talk.

(I decided to only have one version of the slides anymore on Slideshare. That way, this page will always show the last version of the slides.)

A video of version 7  is online