December 11, 2007

New Agile Training Course and 2008 Schedule

Berteig Consulting Inc. is introducing a two day course for team members. The first run of this course is occurring in Toronto on Jan. 21 and 22. This course is a slimmed down version of the four-day intensive training that we often deliver in-house to teams. It is an inexpensive option for teams that want to bring a new team member up to speed, who need to get a few people to understand how Scrum works and then share it with the rest of the team, or for any team member who would like to learn how Scrum works in the hopes of intelligently convincing other team members to try it out. Since there is a strong experiential component to the course, it is also ideal for managers and other stakeholders who would like to try out an agile process.

We are also offering our three day Agile Project Management / ScrumMaster Certification course in several locations: Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Beijing. Right now, there are special prices for the first team member training course as well as the course being delivered in Beijing.

For more information, please check out the Berteig Consulting listing of agile and Scrum training.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 03:43 PM | |

December 03, 2007

Scrum Training for Team Members

Time for an experiment! I have heard from many people that I have trained (ScrumMasters primarily), that there is a need for the members of the teams they are working with to have some systematic training as well. So, I'm announcing a new team member training course designed to cover some of the same material as the Certified ScrumMaster course, but focused more towards the needs of a team member who might be new to Scrum or struggling with Scrum, or just wants to get a more in-depth understanding of "ideal" Scrum. Now here's the experiment part: I'm accepting pre-registration on FaceBook only! Because this is the first time this course will be offered, I need to get a sense of actual interest in the course. Here is the event url for FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=5901567765. If you are interested, please go to the event page and indicate your interest in attending. If you know anyone who might be interested, please share the event with them! If you aren't on FaceBook, I highly recommend it for both personal and professional networking, and I would encourage you to sign up. The FaceBook event page has more details about the course, but here are a few: it's 2 days long, its going to be in Toronto in late January, and it's only $800 (Canadian, which is an introductory price).

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 09:27 PM | |

November 29, 2007

Agile China Yahoo Group

Just in case there is anyone out there in China who is looking for a community of people doing agile, this Yahoo group, Scrum China, might be a good place to sign up! Make yourself visible, and find other people. Also, for what it's worth, I'm running a course in Beijing in February: check the course listing for Scrum Training in Beijing.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 03:40 PM | |

November 26, 2007

Writing Project

Hi everyone! I'm currently extremely busy with a Scrum-related writing project. The lack of new articles here is mostly due to that fact. I should be done with the project in a few weeks, but it might take me to the end of the year. I will try to continue to post interesting links or small articles until the new year, but I won't be posting substantial articles until I am done this other writing project. Sorry for the lighter content, but I hope you will all be patient. I will, of course, make an announcement about my other writing project once it is ready! Thanks!

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 06:00 PM | |

November 08, 2007

Why I'm Moving to FaceBook and Giving Up on LinkedIn

I don't often write non-agile entries on this blog. Nevertheless, I thought this would be an appropriate change. A couple days ago I invited all 454 of my LinkedIn contacts to re-connect with me on FaceBook. I'm going to stop using LinkedIn after over two years of building up my network there. Here are my reasons:

Many more people are on FaceBook

For a networking site of any kind, this is an obvious and substantial advantage! Many people I know are already on FaceBook. Probably, many people with whom I have professional relationships are on it. It's extremely popular, and there are some people who are actually adverse to popular things, but FaceBook is popular for a reason: it's good as a social networking site.

FaceBook has more flexible settings for relationships

LinkedIn is great for purely professional relationships that have exactly one type. FaceBook allows you to specify multiple types of relationship between your friends/acquaintances and yourself. For example, you can specify that you worked together, that you met in a Bar in 1998, and that you are now related by marriage.

It has an open API

This is a bit more geeky, but this allows the feature set to expand quickly as new apps are developed... including ones that allow FaceBook users to work with their LinkedIn profiles and contacts. Of course, there are many other apps including, unfortunately, some really dumb games. The trick here, is to just decline/ignore the things that you aren't interested in.

It has excellent on-site discussion systems

FaceBook has groups for common interests, notes you can use for blogging, public messaging on peoples "walls", private messaging (like InMail except free), multimedia including urls, audio, video, images and drawings.

De-emphasis on # of Contacts, Emphasis on Communication

LinkedIn feels too much like an individual popularity contest: get lots of contacts and you are a better person. I know that this is my own perception and it certainly says something about me! But I know that quite a few other people also feel this way too. This is the wrong reason to be using a networking site. Basically, if you really care about networking, as opposed to collecting large numbers of contacts, FaceBook is just better. All the different discussion systems make it so that almost any conceivable type of discussion can take place.... and...

Birthday Reminders, Photo Sharing, etc.

These are things that work for personal as well as professional networking. Just the simple little thing that I don't have to worry about remembering birthdays is great for networking. Sharing photos is also really important. It's good for your professional contacts to be able to learn about your family, and for you to learn about the families of your professional contacts.

This is not to say that FaceBook is perfect. There are concerns about privacy, there is a growing level of noise. It remains to be seen if FaceBook will continue to improve or if it will somehow fall apart in the end.

As much as possible, I would prefer to have one spot take care of all my networking needs. So really, the bottom line has become: I no longer even remember to invite people to LinkedIn, and I never visit it anymore now that I have used FaceBook for several months. I probably won't ever remove my LinkedIn profile, but I sure won't be maintaining it like I maintain my FaceBook profile.

The more I use FaceBook, the more certain I am that it will "win". I believe FaceBook is "most likely to last" of all the social networking sites I have tried. I often compare it to Google: Google succeeds because it is incredibly good at connecting us with the right information at the right time. FaceBook succeeds because it is incredibly good at connecting us with the right people at the right time. LinkedIn just doesn't compare.

If you are connected with me in LinkedIn, or even if you would just like to connect with me for the first time, please use FaceBook. You can find me by name there.

Thanks, Mishkin Berteig.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 06:04 AM | |

October 18, 2007

Agile Support - Helping You Get Better at Agile

A sister site to Agile Advice has been moved into "pre-official-launch" stage: Agile-Support.com. This is a site for individuals to discuss agile methods, for downloads of various resources, and, if you register, to host blogs and other content development by individuals wishing to do so in an online community setting. Think of this as the "beta" launch: there are probably still many kinks to be worked out.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 10:18 PM | |

October 16, 2007

Reminder: Agile/Scrum Training - Toronto, Ottawa, Beijing

The Toronto class coming up in one week still has spots, the Ottawa class in November is nearly full, and the Beijing course pre-registration discount is almost over! Please sign up for a course today!

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 07:23 AM | |

October 12, 2007

Beijing Scrum Training

I'm organizing a 3-day ScrumMaster Certification course in Beijing to occur on the 19th-21st of December. I need several more people to express interest in the course before I can confirm it. For those who "Save a Spot" early, there is a 20% discount available. This discount is only available until Oct. 20th. At that time, I will see if the required number of people have signed up and then make the final decision if the course should go ahead. If you or someone you know is interested and would like to receive this training in Beijing, please "Save a Spot" right away so that I can count you towards ensuring that the course does go ahead! Please sign up here!

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 09:10 PM | |

October 01, 2007

New Agile Aggregator - Agile Daily

This looks interesting: Agile Daily. This is an aggregator site like technorati or Agile Planet (seemingly defunct now), but with some interesting twists described in more detail at SocialRank.com. Apparently, SocialRank.com is setting up aggregator sites that are meant to also be community sites... maybe a little like InfoQ? Interesting experiment: it's quite new so we'll see what happens.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 10:15 AM | |

September 12, 2007

Agile Training - Discount Period Almost Over

The 15% discount offered by Berteig Consulting Inc. on its fall courses is almost expired. If you "Save a Spot" or "Register" for a class on or before Sep. 15th, you will still get the discount. Courses are filling up quickly! Courses are being offered in Toronto, Beijing, Fort McMurray and Ottawa. (UPDATED: guess I missed that link when I first posted this... probably most of you figured it out anyway, but still DOH!!!)

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 08:30 AM | |

August 23, 2007

Meta-Announce: Agile-ANN

Joe Little has created a yahoo! group called agile-ann. It will be used for all types of announcements for agile events, conferences, meet-ups, courses, seminars, calls for papers, etc. etc. It will probably become fairly high volume with all the agile stuff that goes on! I strongly encourage everyone reading this site to sign up for the list.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 02:04 PM | |

August 21, 2007

Agile/Scrum Training - Fall Schedule: Toronto, Edmonton, Beijing

The fall schedule is up for Agile/Scrum training. For Canadian training, prices are currently discounted and will be raised on Sept. 15th. For Beijing, the course date is tentative based on pre-registrations up to Oct. 15th. Pre-registrants for the Beijing course will get the pre-registration price of 8000 RMB and after Oct. 15th, the price will go up to 10000 RMB.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 11:13 AM | |

August 14, 2007

Agile 2008 Conference - In My Town!

I'm pleased to see that Agile 2008 conference is in Toronto! I'll be there the whole time... The web site doesn't have any information yet except the hotel.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 04:09 PM | |

June 19, 2007

Derth of Articles

I apologize to everyone for the lack of articles over the last few months. I've been traveling like crazy including India, England, the US and China! I _think_ life is settling down a little so I plan to start writing again.

Thanks for your patience!

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 02:38 PM | |

April 15, 2007

Agile/Scrum Training in Beijing

This is a "last call" for people to register for the ScrumMaster certification course I am holding in Beijing on June 7th and 8th. At this time, I need only a few more people to be able to confirm the course (it is tentative at this time). If you are interested please save yourself a spot. If you know someone else who might be interested, please send along this link:

http://www.berteigconsulting.com/secure/a.php?h=042

I will be making my final decision on the course on April 22nd.

Thanks! - Mishkin.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 09:20 PM | |

January 31, 2007

Intermittent Internet Service Outages

Sorry folks... over the past day and a half, and expected for the next day or so Agile Advice and other web sites hosted on the Berteig Consulting Inc. servers are experiencing intermittent and poor internet connectivity. If things are very slow or fail part way through a page load, this is why. Hopefully we'll be back up at full steam soon.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 12:27 AM | |

January 19, 2007

Aspiring Writer? Agile Guru Wanna-be?

Agile Advice gets about 600 hits per day. This number is growing. If you would like exposure and don't want to start your own blog from scratch, I am always looking for people to contribute. Topics of interest include teams, organizational development, agile outside software, metrics, appropriate tools, interesting challenges, good books, links, short articles or long, and anything else that you think might be interesting. You can email proposals to me: mishkin@berteigconsulting.com.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 07:34 PM | |

December 27, 2006

Reminder: Discount for Agile Courses

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.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 03:20 PM | |

December 24, 2006

Agile Training in India

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!

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 04:37 AM | |

December 18, 2006

Calling for Reviewers

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.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 12:29 AM | |

December 13, 2006

Yahoo! Group for Agile Work

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.

Subscribe to AgileWork

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 03:26 AM | |

December 12, 2006

Reminder: Discount on Agile Training and Certification

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.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 10:13 AM | |

November 26, 2006

Agile Training - Discount and New Courses

The new winter and spring schedule for courses is up. There are three new courses: Introduction to Agile Work (a one-day course), Agile Team Member training, and Agile Queue Master training (product management / customer). Up until Dec. 31st, Berteig Consulting Inc. is offering a 10% discount to people who sign up for courses through Agile Advice. Follow this link:
Discounted Agile Training

Most courses are in the Toronto area, but some are scheduled for Edmonton, Calgary, Halifax, Vancouver and Ottawa.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 10:41 PM | |

October 12, 2006

Edmonton Agile Project Management / ScrumMaster Certification Next Week

Folks, there are still spots left in the course next Thu. and Fri. (19th and 20th). The details including location can be found here. There are only 5 spots left.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 11:08 PM | |

October 10, 2006

Managing Process Facilitators - Published on Agile Journal

I've had an article published at the Agile Journal called Managing Process Facilitators (Coaches, ScrumMasters, Agile Project Managers). Please check it out and tell me what you think.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 10:33 AM | |

September 13, 2006

Last Call: Discount on Agile Project Management Courses this Fall

Two days left to take advantage of an 15% discount for Agile Project Management / ScrumMaster Certification courses being offered across Canada this fall. Locations include Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Halifax, and Kitchener/Waterloo. This offer ends on Fri. Sept. 15th 2006, 23:59 EDT. You must follow the above link in order to receive the discount.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 04:48 PM | |

A Manager's Introduction to Agile Work - PDF Download

I have just finished writing a first draft of A Manager's Introduction to Agile Work. With feedback from you, my loyal reader, I hope to do two or three iterations of this over the next weeks and develop something that you feel comfortable presenting to middle and upper management. The draft can be downloaded from the Berteig Consulting Inc. Agile Work Resources page. I look forward to your comments, questions and suggestions.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 10:24 AM | |

September 07, 2006

Seven Days Left for Discounted Courses

Berteig Consulting Inc. is offering a 15% discount on its fall courses being held in Canada. To make sure that you receive your discount, please follow this link and save your spot:

15% Discount on Agile Project Management / Scrum Courses in Canada

The discount is no longer available after Sept. 15, 11:59pm EST

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 03:14 PM | |

August 27, 2006

Oops! Servers down over the weekend!

Sorry for the inconvenience, but it turns out a telephone cable was severed due to some nearby construction work. Fortunately, things are back to normal!

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 11:35 PM | |

August 24, 2006

New Schedule for Canada Agile/Scrum Courses

The fall schedule for Agile Project Management / ScrumMaster Certification courses has been posted on the Berteig Consulting web site. If you register through Agile Advice before Sept. 15th, you will receive a 15% discount on the course fee (this discount will be reflected on the course information display). The Beijing course is not available at a discounted price.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 08:27 PM | |

August 22, 2006

Spots Remaining in Upcoming Agile Project Management Course

There are still spots available in this two-day course occuring on the 24th and 25th in the Toronto area. Details and registration information can be found on the Berteig Consulting Inc. agile course listings.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 03:53 PM | |

July 26, 2006

No Posts for Ten Days...

I'm in Beijing with limited connectivity. I'll be back to posting new material in early August. Thanks!

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 07:24 AM | |

July 18, 2006

Affiliates Program Announcement

Berteig Consulting Inc. has set up an affiliates program similar to the Amazon Associates program. This allows people who sign up for the program to earn money on referrals to public courses that Berteig Consulting Inc. offers. You help promote Agile and earn some cash by putting an affiliate link to the public courses offered by Berteig Consulting Inc. (includes the ScrumMaster Certification course). Sign up for the affiliates program or read the details.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 09:31 AM | |

July 08, 2006

Updated Agile Work Cheat Sheets

I have substantially updated the basic Agile Work Cheat Sheet and the Agile Work Cheat Sheet for Process Facilitators. Please check them out at the Berteig Consulting Inc. Agile Work Resources page.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 05:40 PM | |

June 30, 2006

ScrumMaster Training in San Diego - Jul. 6 + 7

An excellent, experienced coach that I have had the priviledge of working with is giving a class in just a few days. He has spots left, and I highly recommend taking the class from him if you can schedule it. The details for his ScrumMaster training are here.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 12:28 AM | |

June 15, 2006

Upcoming Agile Training and Certification

Agile training including ScrumMaster Certification, Introduction to Agile Work and Adult Learning for Agile Coaches. Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Beijing. Reserve your spot on the schedule of public agile courses offered by Berteig Consulting Inc.

The Berteig Consulting agile training courses are designed to help the attendees of the course learn about agile methods, make the needed mental shift towards agile concepts, and start the change in their habits of behavior. We do this in the following ways:

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 12:01 AM | |

May 17, 2006

InfoQ Site "Unlaunched"

Okay, so yet more announcements... a new site called InfoQ has been un-launched. They cover Java, .NET, Ruby, SOA, and Agile topics. This site is important for me because... I've got an article published on it. The article is "What is Agility and Why Should You Care?".

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 02:28 PM | |

New Cheat Sheet: Agile Work for Process Facilitators

Take a peek at our new cheat sheet for Agile Work process facilitators (large PDF). This cheat sheet features a complete set of basic reference information for process facilitators including a great list of questions to ask oneself. There are also a number of colorful diagrams that quickly convey important tools for the process facilitator including methods of dealing with obstacles. We also have a poster-size version available for sale at the Agile Work shop.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 02:09 PM | |

Updated Agile Work Cheat Sheet

The Agile Work Cheat Sheet has been updated. It can be found on the Berteig Consulting Inc. Agile Work Resources page. There are layout and formatting changes designed to make it easier to understand. There is also the addition of the seventh core Agile Work practice "Clear the Path". If you are interested in poster-size color printed copies, please check out the Agile Advice store.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 03:26 AM | |

May 16, 2006

Talk on Agile Methods

Sorry for the short notice: Tuesday May 16th I will be giving a short presentation (in Toronto) on the use of Agile methods in non-software environments. For more details see http://www.xptoronto.com/.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 12:01 AM | |

May 08, 2006

A new Agile-Scrum-Lean Product Management Course

For over 40 years I have been developing, delivering and managing technical training for others. Finally, I've done this one for me. And I expect many others to follow. This course is both intensively conceptual and intensively hands-on workshop. The course is being delivered in Boston on May 18 and 19. See www.jconne.com for details. And read on here for more about this course.

My frame of reference is "trust from truth" which is the heart of what I initially appreciated about Scrum Agile Project Management when I first heard Ken Schwaber speak for the ACM in Boston at MIT.
Why has there been such a poor history of trust between management and development teams? This course explains the cause and offers an alternative.

Here are my First Principles:

Reality always wins in the end,
So get there sooner.
Pretending to know what we don't know gets in the way of learning
(and we can't get caught trying to learn it!)
The world runs on trust.
How do you get and maintain trust?
Go back and read the first two. How does this relate to Agile software development?

Please check out my course and help me spread the word.

Thank you,

Jay

=======================================================
Jay Conne Consulting -- Demystification of Technology
Lean/Agile Coach, Trainer & ScrumMaster-Practicing
http://www.jconne.com/ Jay@jconne.com
M: 617-470-5038 617-776-0339 FAX: 617-776-6206
=======================================================

Posted by Jay Conne at 02:26 AM | |

April 06, 2006

Agile Work Seminar and Intensive Agile Work For Teams

Berteig Consulting Inc. has announced an updated public course schedule which includes a one-day introduction to Agile Work, and a four-day intensive course for teams. Both of these courses have been offered previously in a private setting and they have received loads of positive feedback (and suggestions for improvement which have been incorporated into these public versions). And yes... this is blatant self-promotion!

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 10:21 AM | |

March 13, 2006

ScrumMaster Certification Course for Agile Software Project Management in Toronto, Mar. 23+24, 2006

This is an interesting and excellent course that goes into much of the material here on Agile Advice in a software-specific context. Register here, or view the course description.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 02:12 PM | |

February 20, 2006

Minor Site Updates

I have updated the category names to be a bit more descriptive and to allow for entry headers to be styled by category. This announcement is an example of that! I have also added an indicator for the number of entries under each category on the category listing on the right side of this page. Hope these minor updates make the site just a wee bit easier to use!

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 06:19 PM | |

Improvisation for Agile Facilitators

Once in a while I will announce events, classes, etc. that I think might be of particular interest to readers of Agile Advice. This one is for people in the Seattle area and comes to me through Tobias Meyer.

Improvisation for Facilitators is a one-day workshop offering core improvisation skills to Agile facilitators and coaches. See the full entry for more details.

Trainer: Matt Smith
Location: Seattle, Washington (venue to be announced)
Date: Tuesday 21 March 2006
Cost: $180.00 per person

Matt Smith is an actor, improv artist and corporate trainer based in Seattle, WA. Matt has explored Agile principles and values with Kert Peterson, and has taken the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) course with Ken Schwaber. This full-day workshop promises to be an engaging and energetic experience, providing facilitators and coaches with new tools and techniques to take into the Agile workplace.

For full details of this course, and enrollment information, visit http://agilethinking.net/improv01.html

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 04:01 PM | |

February 01, 2006

Two Sister Conferences

I've applied to run two discovery workshops at Agile 2006 (I'll make a complete announcement if/when I am confirmed as a presenter), and there are going to be a great number of excellent speakers and topics at Waterfall 2006. I hope to see you there!

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 12:28 PM | |

December 22, 2005

Entries over the Holiday Season

Hello all! I'm travelling and visiting and working over the holiday season so my posting frequency is going to be very low... My most exciting thing is that on the 28th and 29th I'm going to be delivering the ScrumMaster Certification course in Toronto to a great group of interesting folks. Have a great holiday season!

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 03:01 PM | |

December 07, 2005

Email Notifications

If coming back to Agile Advice and checking for new entries is getting to be a pain, consider signing up with Bloglet for an email subscription. I've tried it out for a couple days myself the emails I get are very non-invasive, with a simple link to the articles. If other blogs you read also allow Bloglet subscriptions, you can aggregate all the activity into a single daily email. Very convenient!

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 09:08 AM | |

November 14, 2005

Call for Contributors

I'm looking for two people to volunteer to write about Agile for this site. In particular, I'm interested in stories about Agile being used outside of technical fields and Agile being used in management. Of course, if you have a burning desire to write about something else, please let me know: mishkin@berteigconsulting.com.

Terms:
- You get to use any name or alias you wish, your authorship will be listed with each blog entry, and each entry you submit will link to a web page or email address of your choice.
- You can include in your entries affiliate links for specific products related to your entry.
- If you become a regular contributor (more than two entries per calendar month), I will include a link to a web site of your choice on the front page.
- Entries are subject to editing or removal for any reason whatsoever. In general, if you are writing about something related to Agile, Teamwork, Process, Management, Learning, Community you should be okay. If I remove your entry, I will keep a backup copy of it.
- You will not be paid by Agile Advice, Berteig Consulting Inc. or any affiliated web sites, companies or individuals for your entries submitted. You give Berteig Consulting Inc. a non-exclusive unlimited license to publish your entries to the Agile Advice web site and any derived works.
- You must provide a permanent link from a web page of your authorship and choosing to the front page of Agile Advice.
- Any questions you have about these terms should be directed to Mishkin Berteig by email: mishkin@berteigconsulting.com.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 02:34 AM | |

November 01, 2005

Mishkin Berteig attains ScrumMaster Training Designation

Mishkin Berteig, the founder of Berteig Consulting Inc. and a principal contributor to the Agile Advice blog has been listed on the Control Chaos web site as a Certified ScrumMaster Trainer. This certification represents acknowledgement of Mishkin's ability to deliver the ScrumMaster certification course. Scrum is a collection of management patterns used to implement agile principles and practices for software new product development.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 09:28 AM | |

September 14, 2005

Extended ISP Problems

Over the course of the past week and a bit, my ISP had a serious outage which prevented this web site and related email addresses from being available. Please accept my appologies. We will resume regular new contributions soon.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 11:58 PM | |

September 01, 2005

Lack of Entries

I have been unable to post to this blog lately due to time spent setting up a new home in Richmond Virginia combined with starting on a new and very large, intense project. I will begin to post again regularly. Sorry to regular readers (I know there are some :-) ).

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 06:23 AM | |

August 18, 2005

Using Agile Work Practices to Develop a Seminar

I've been working on developing a Agile Work Seminar to introduce teams to agile work. I'm using some Agile Work practices to develop it.

Iterative Delivery and Adaptive Planning

The seminar is going through drafts. Each draft will actually be delivered to a team. The first time through all the material was done at a small software consulting company five days ago. As a result of feedback from the people who participated, a revision will be made to the seminar... and then it will be delivered again (probably the next time will be in early September). This process allows me to refine the contents and presentation of the material.

Over time, I will be able to use Adaptive Planning to modify the contents and qualities of the seminar as circumstances change.

Test-Driven Work

I have set up criteria for the presentation in the form of an outline and learning objectives. The outline describes the major topics that must be directly covered such as the Agile Axioms or Corporate Culture. I have also set up "soft goals" such as that the seminar must include theory, history, practice and criticism of Agile Work. My first iteration met the outline tests, but did not meet the soft tests explicitly. The next version will.

Appropriate Metrics

This is an easy one: the success of this project will be its acceptance in the marketplace by having teams willing to pay the price for this seminar and then recommending it to others.

The Other Practices

Because this is essentially a one-man job, the other practices such as Self-Organizing Team and Maximize Communication are not as applicable.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 08:32 AM | |

July 31, 2005

Another Excellent Blog: Reforming Project Management

Good stuff, in particular about lean, at Reforming Project Management. Applicable to agile work in many circumstances.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 12:45 PM | |

June 30, 2005

Scrum FAQ Wiki Started

Deborah Hartmann, one of the contributors to Agile Advice, has started a wiki-based FAQ for Scrum. At the moment, it is bare of content: please submit questions or answers!

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 12:30 PM | |

June 23, 2005

Comments and TrackBacks now using HaloScan

Please try them out! And if you like the system, check out HaloScan.com. And let me know in the comments if there are any problems :-)

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 10:30 AM | |

May 17, 2005

Entry for Agile Work on Wikipedia

Can be found here. It is very bare-bones and will eventually be fleshed out. Presents the outline of the basic axioms, disciplines and practices of working agile. Please feel free to contribute.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 06:21 PM | |

April 26, 2005

Mishkin Berteig attains Scrum Master Practicing Certification

Mishkin Berteig, the founder of Berteig Consulting Inc. and the Agile Advice blog has been listed on the Control Chaos web site as a Certified Scrum Master Practicing. This certification represents acknowledgement of Mishkin's real-world experience as a Scrum Master. Scrum is a collection of management patterns used to implement agile principles and practices for new product development.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 12:25 AM | |

April 05, 2005

Announcing Agile Advice

At this time, the word “agile” is often associated with software development. Many web sites and resources about agility have this focus (see www.agilealliance.org). However, the concepts and practices that are focused on software (see www.agilemanifesto.org, www.extremeprogramming.org, www.controlchaos.com), are also in use to various degrees under various names in other fields: Lean Manufacturing, Just-in-Time Logistics, The Scientific Method, Creative Problems Solving, and Organizational Learning, among others. Agile Advice and it's sister web site (AgileMasters.com) aim to bring the notion of agility to all types of work: Agile Work.

The Agile Advice blog is meant to be an attractive resource for people exploring the use of agile principles and practices in all aspects of work, community and personal life. Agile coaches, consultants, practitioners, trainers, novices and any other interested people are all invited to participate by submitting suggestions for topics to topics@agileadvice.com.

Agile Advice aims to be practical, useful, and relevant on one hand, and exploratory, thought-provoking, and ground-breaking on the other hand. With that in mind, entries in the Agile Advice blog will fall under five categories: Agile Work Practice, Agile Work Theory, Agile Work Stories, Interesting Stuff, and Announcements. We will also be open to any suggestions, criticisms, or questions about the work we do here. Please feel free to contact us at comments@agileadvice.com.

Posted by Mishkin Berteig at 02:22 AM | |