The holiday season here in North America is a pretty slow time. Sorry for the lack of interesting entries! I want to remind people that there is a 10% discount if you register or save a spot in one of the classes offered by Berteig Consulting Inc. The trick is, the discount is only available for another five days! Save yourself a spot even if you don’t pay now: Agile Training and Workshops.

I am planning a training course on Agile Project Management / ScrumMaster Certification in Chennai (Madras), India early in the new year (hopefully the second half of February). At this point, dates are tentative, but I would love to hear from readers who would be interested. As well, if you know others who would also be interested, please let me know. I will be firming up numbers and dates early in January as well as making the final go/no-go decision at that time. Please contact me either by email (mishkin@berteigconsulting.com) or by phone +1 905 841 1196 if you are interested.

Some details about the course: it will be a 3 day course rather than the usual 2-days that is taken by the ScrumMaster Certification. I have not yet finalized a price but it will likely be a small amount lower than my regular ScrumMaster course price (which is CA$1200.00). There is the opportunity for me to run an in-house private class while I am there if your organization can send enough people (contact me for details).

I hope that I can meet some of my readers in the new year!

I have finished a first draft of a short book (60 pages) to be published online on the topic of Agile Work. It is all about applying agile methods to non-software environments. I am looking for two or three people who would be willing to review the draft. If you are interested, you need to be able to commit the time for this week to read it and provide feedback. You should also have tried applying agile methods in a non-software environment (anything will do). Please email me at mishkin at berteig consulting dot com if you are interested in doing this.

I’m starting an email group to discuss the ideas of Agile Work. I think that there are enough differences in practice, emphasis and theory from the other agile methods, that it is probably reasonable to start some more discussion about Agile Work as a separate thing.

In particular, I am interested in promoting the application of these ideas far beyond the bounds of just software development. How does this method apply to families? Communities? Organizations? Artistic and creative work? Research? Experimentation? Rote work? Where is it being practiced? What problems do people have applying it? What theoretical considerations are you puzzling over? Do you think its a load of crap or the answer to all our problems? Please join this group so that this can become a discussion instead of just a platform for me to write at you.

Agile Work is for people, not robots.

Take advantage of the 10% discount on agile training and certification courses offered by Berteig Consulting Inc. to Agile Advice readers. This discount is only available until Dec. 31st! If you don’t know 100% if you can attend, consider using the “Save a Spot” feature to register while you firm up your schedule or get approval for the training.