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I'm all excited about what's coming tomorrow. Want to know what it is? Well, the folks who joined our webinar yesterday already know (and are enjoying early access only available to them!), but you have to wait until tomorrow. It's worth the wait, I promise! I'm putting together something I'm really excited about—this is a complete brain-dump of what you need to know and do as a BA to succeed in 2024. 💡 Let's be real. No matter what you may hear from others or learn in expensive Agile classes, if you are a BA, you are expected to do three things: 1. Work with user stories. 2. Do it in Jira. 3. Be part of an Agile team.   👉 That's exactly why I am putting everything you need to know in this very condensed and intensive training program (which will be available as both an instructor-led class and an on-demand course). I will teach you how to take the assorted requirements and desires of users and customers and transform them into an actionable, accurate, and comprehensive backlog for your digital product. How will it be different from other classes? ✅ Over the course of two days, you will work individually and in small groups with other participants on a real-world training project. ✅ You will get direct access to my training Jira environment and will be assigned an individual functional area that you’ll work on throughout the class. ✅ Most importantly, you’ll learn what details are required by modern-world distributed Agile teams, and how you need to describe various types of user stories: for backend, for frontend, for APIs—those are completely different types of user stories. And you’ll learn how to tackle them in this class. ✅ To accommodate your busy schedule, we'll conveniently run this class online, over the course of two days—during evening time in Europe and lunchtime in the Americas.   If you participated in the webinar yesterday (by the way, that was me in the picture 'behind the scenes' getting nervous 10 minutes prior to the start!), you already have the early-bird access details in your email inbox. For the others—you have to wait until tomorrow. More news is coming. Sergey

Tomorrow, in the new issue of Learn Agile Practices newsletter ⬇️ Are we sure that going async with the Daily Stand-up is a good idea? 🤔 The Daily Stand-up is one of the most used (and abused) among all the Agile practices, and it has been misinterpreted and misused for a lot of years (the usual example is that it becomes an update meeting) - and now that working remotely has become very common, a lot of tools that implement an “async” stand-up are used by a lot of teams, adding another misuse of the practice. Today, I will try to describe what purpose such meetings are supposed to achieve, and why they are important, going back to what I think is one of the most underestimated objectives of Agile: collaboration! Subscribe here to not miss it 👉 https://buff.ly/43Zm6In

Why Attend Agile Coach Camp Worldwide? So a question someone in the agile space is why might I want to attend Agile Coach Camp Worldwide (ACC-WW)? This may feel particularly pertinent now that it is in Costa Rica - isn't it catering to the LATAM market? The short answer is no. While we are trying to help make it more financially accessible to people in Latin America by lowering their travel costs, there are a myriad of reasons someone from North America, Europe, and elsewhere may want to attend still. Let me run through a few... While all ACCs bring together different perspectives, bringing agile coaches from across continents together multiplies the differences. This in turn can challenge assumptions that may hold true for your region, whether it be the North Eastern region of the United States or how this work has been done in the EU. There may be new techniques that have been tried within say Bolivia that haven't made it outside their country yet. Likewise, their may be insights we can provide for them. Along those lines, from outside appearances, Latin America doesn't seem to be going through some of the same pains 'Agile' is going through in the United States, Canada, and Europe (and perhaps elsewhere). Wouldn't we want to understand why? Is it just lagging in some way in the market? Or is something else going on? That's one of the reasons we decided on a theme around resilience! You may also want to make connections with potential business partners (i.e. other coaches) in this market. What better way to do so than also having great discussions about improving our agile coaching capabilities and our client's evolving needs. We are closely coinciding with the Agiles LATAM conference 25-27 September. You could easily attend both with a day in between to see the sights and take in some of Costa Rican culture. Undoubtedly, you will make connections that carry over into that conference much like others. And while Agiles LATAM will predominantly in Spanish, ACC-WW will be in English. So don't miss out on our experiment of going outside the US. We're doing this without the financial help of the Alliance and it may determine whether we conduct a second experiment next year in Europe. AND for all the people that wished me a Happy Birthday over the last few days, please consider giving me a present by informing your network of this event. I hope to see you there!

Adopting agile is intimidating, but ADAPT provides an excellent framework! In the insightful read, 'Succeeding with Agile,' Mike Cohn lets us in on a secret -- 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗔𝗗𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗶𝗻𝗴! This acronym stands for Awareness, Desire, Ability, Promotion, and Transfer. Each letter carves a step closer to effective and enduring agile adoption. 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 is realizing that the current process isn't yielding the desired results. 🚀 Developing this awareness involves communication and metrics emphasizing the need for change and its advantages. 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗿𝗲 is the urge to adopt agile as a solution to current problems. 🚀 Some ways to boost this desire include highlighting a better approach, initiating a sense of urgency, and engaging team members. 𝗔𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 is about gaining the skillset needed to flourish with agile. 🚀 This can be bolstered by coaching, training, and setting realistic targets. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 involves sharing our success stories with agile and inviting others to join the bandwagon. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗲𝗿 is about extending the agile impact across the company, ensuring compatibility with all sectors. 𝗦𝗼, 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗔𝗗𝗔𝗣𝗧 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? 🚀 Start by identifying which activity resonates with your current situation, pick three steps to progress to the next activity and implement one of them. Which step will you take today to ADAPT and ace agile?

Staying organized and productive can be challenging. To manage myself better on a personal basis, I’ve started incorporating task tools, learning concepts, and Agile methodologies into my routine. Agile, often associated with software development, has powerful principles that can be applied to personal management: 1. **Iteration and Incremental Progress**: Instead of aiming for perfection from the start, focus on making continuous, small improvements. Break down larger goals into manageable tasks and celebrate each milestone. 2. **Prioritization**: Agile emphasizes prioritizing tasks based on value. By identifying the most important tasks that will bring the most benefit, you can ensure your efforts are aligned with your personal goals. 3. **Flexibility and Adaptability**: Life is unpredictable. Agile teaches us to adapt and be flexible. Regularly reassess your plans and be open to changes, ensuring you’re always moving in the right direction. 4. **Collaboration and Feedback**: While Agile typically involves team collaboration, on a personal level, seek feedback from mentors, friends, or family. Their insights can provide valuable perspectives and help you improve. To support these Agile principles, I’ve been using several task management tools for my personal life - - **Trello**: A visual tool for organizing tasks into boards and lists. It’s perfect for tracking progress and staying on top of to-dos. - **Todoist**: A powerful to-do list app that helps with task prioritization and setting reminders. - **Notion**: A versatile tool that combines notes, tasks, databases, and calendars, allowing for a comprehensive personal management system. In addition to these tools, I’ve found LinkedIn Learning to be an invaluable resource. With courses on Agile project management, personal productivity, and various task management tools, it has provided me with the knowledge and skills to implement these practices effectively. Integrating Agile methodologies with these tools and continuous learning through LinkedIn Learning has significantly improved my productivity and focus. I feel more in control of my personal projects and better equipped to handle the unexpected. Are you using any task management tools or learning platforms to manage yourself better? I'd love to hear about your experiences and tips! #Agile #TaskManagement #PersonalDevelopment #Productivity #LinkedInLearning #SelfImprovement

What I’m Up To and an Invitation to Join Me In many ways, the Agile community is going backward. There are many echo chambers swarming around dogmatic, defensive stances. Four to five decades ago, there was passion, but not the defensiveness I see today. It’s understandable. People now identify with their certifications and feel attacked when suggestions for improving them are presented. Fear is greater now than I’ve ever seen it. I am presenting an approach based on systems thinking, first principles for knowledge work, factors for effective value streams, key decision methods, value stream management, and critical practices I see rarely used in the Agile space now. This collection has been arrived at by my analysis over 20 years of seeing what works and what doesn’t. I base it on Flow, Lean, and The Theory of Constraints, along with leading thought leaders such as Don Reinertsen and Tom Gilb. We have to shift from immutable frameworks to adaptive frameworks. We must shift from defending our opinions to continuous learning. We must shift certification from the regurgitation of information to a measure of abilities in thinking or doing. I am up to change this.  But I’m not trying to do this by myself. I have created two different communities for those who want to join me. For those who want to actively participate in creating the future, I invite you to join me in my Amplio Consultant Educators Program. There is nothing like this. We have 3 hourly sessions every week. One session is for me to present cutting-edge materials. A second is for us to work together to sketch these out. And the third is both a Q&A session or working on the next good thing.  Participating gets you access to virtual collaboration boards and hundreds of PowerPoint slides I use in my presentation. The fee is $995 for six months of participation in the program. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead For those who want to learn part of what we’re creating. The (free) Amplio Community of Practice provides a self-study program where concepts are conveyed in cutting-edge training methods. In addition, I, of course, am also working with organizations that are interested. You can learn more by looking at the picture attached or DM me.

Are you up to changing the world? I invite you to join me because that is exactly what I’m working on. A bit grandiose, I know. But I am serious. Over 20 years ago, when the Agile Manifesto came out, this was how many of us felt – let’s change the world with Agile. Unfortunately, that enthusiasm was used to create a controlled training vehicle for a handful of people.  Agile now means expensive and ineffective certification programs in methods that don’t even pretend to see what your problems are before adopting them. The real cost of this is: - 85% of what’s learned in a 2-day workshop is lost in 1-2 days. - people use methods that are not fit for their situation - much of what’s been shown to be effective is not being offered - That the verifiable theories of flow, lean, and the Theory of Constraints are mostly being ignored in companies. - companies spend billions of dollars reinventing training materials that should be virtually free - companies are working at a fraction of their potential Agile is not dead, but more and more people are looking to create their own methods. I want to help them based on what I’ve seen work. “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Albert Einstein “A comfort zone has less to do with control and more to do with knowledge.” Eli Goldratt My Amplio Consultant Educators program looks at first to be a way to turn good consultants into great ones. It is more effective than normal live training because you learn over time yet is priced as if it were online training. But its real purpose is to get the right concepts to the right people at a significantly lower cost than in today’s market.  And to enable them to do their own internal training and consulting with license free materials. To change the world. Shift companies from followers to educators. I’m doing this by working with the ACEs to learn through co-creation. No one or two people can solve this problem. It takes a dedicated community. Right stuff – know what needs to be done to be effective and also know how to convey it. Right way – 10x effective learning methods at 1/10 the cost by attending to how people learn and taking advantage of remote training possibilities Right cost lower the time for people to learn, the waste of using not-fit-for purpose methods and the cost of internal training. Enable companies to have their own people be the “Agile” experts. If this is exciting to you set up a conversation – see my profile and book an appointment. And it’s ok to be just committed to changing your career or your company. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

Adopting Agile methodologies can significantly elevate your career. Agile goes beyond speed; it's about achieving impactful results, enhancing teamwork, and efficiently navigating changes. Whether you’re in project management, software development, business analysis, or any field that requires adaptive planning and continuous improvement, Agile principles can enhance your effectiveness and help you achieve better results. Join me for an Agile training starting this Saturday, July 22nd, 2024, with DexNova Learning. During this training, you’ll learn how to: 1. Implement Agile practices that prioritize customer satisfaction and business impact. 2. Use value-driven metrics to measure true success. 3. Foster a collaborative team environment that thrives on continuous feedback and improvement. This session will provide you with practical skills and insights that you can apply immediately in your work, helping you to drive projects to success with confidence and agility. Don't miss this opportunity to elevate your professional skills. Indicate interest in the training here: https://lnkd.in/dzHeJxce Call/Chat us on WhatsApp - DexNova Learning: https://lnkd.in/dBMDy9Ea Looking forward to seeing you there and working together to unlock the full potential of Agile.

Starting next month I will try something bold. I will publish community editions of the virtual Road 2 Mastery training expeditions for free. I believe the Agile market is in desperate need of hands-on, collaborative competency-based training. I will share one expedition each month. This will include the Miro templates and PDFs. I worked on these for years, continuously improving the quality through lots of practice and the best possible mentoring from Evelien Acun-Roos, so that the training lives up to the golden, world-class standards rooted in (neuro)scientific principles for effective learning. I hope it will empower many of you. Most of what I share builds on the work of other masters. Over the years, I collected great patterns and ideas with proper credit and respect. We are standing on the shoulders of these masters. And with the R2M, others will stand on yours. That said, I am aware there are risks. Improper use can waste even great material. That is why there is a business tier for those who want to apply it diligently and with proper guidance. It will also help sustain my career. Together with the community, I believe we can make R2M the best agile training, coaching, and facilitation suite accessible to all. If you can't wait and would love to explore more, check out www.road2mastery.com

🎉 As we step into 2024, we're excited to share some of our greatest 2023 highlights:  1. Team Expansion - Growing Together: Our journey wouldn't be complete without acknowledging the expansion of our team. Patrick Campbell is a long-time friend and colleague and we are excited that the opportunity presented itself to bring him into agilityIRL, LLC! His addition allows us to expand our offerings while continuing to fulfill our mission to transform organizations with agile-inspired education and consultation, powered by real world experience. 2. Empowering Minds at PMI Professional Development Day: We are proud to have been part of the PMI Professional Development Day, where we shared insights and knowledge with professionals eager to enhance their Agile skills. The exchange of ideas and experiences was truly inspiring. 3. Leading the Charge at PMI-MN Agile Day: Our involvement in hosting PMI-MN Agile Day underscored our dedication to encouraging an Agile mindset within the project management community. It was a day filled with dynamic discussions, interactive sessions, and the spirit of embracing change for greater project success. 4. Launching take5IRL Podcast: In a bold step towards embracing the power of conversation, we introduced the take5IRL podcast. This platform serves as a hub for engaging discussions on Agile, leadership, and collaboration. Join us as we bring you insightful conversations (in just 5 minutes!) that you can leverage to reach your business goals. 5. Bridging the Gap with New Training Courses: Recognizing the evolving landscape of Product Management, we unveiled new training courses tailored to equip professionals with the skills needed to effectively manage product backlogs. Stay ahead in your field with our Professional Scum Product Backlog Management Skills™ training course!  6. Forging Partnerships: PMI-MN Collaboration: This year saw the initiation of a strategic partnership with PMI Minnesota solidifying our commitment to collaborative growth. By partnering, we aim to continue promoting Agile mindset and principles to the project management community at large. Stepping into 2024, we carry the momentum of these achievements with us! What are some of your 2023 Agile highlights? Comment below!