2021 was a very busy year for Agile Alliance!
As we come to the end of 2021, we wanted to highlight some of the great things that happened throughout the year that you may not have had time to appreciate along the way. Here’s just a sampling of some of the great content and resources from 2021 – presentations, panel discussions, blog posts, and Experience Reports – all made possible by our individual and corporate members.
Supporting Agile Adoption
The Supporting Agile Adoption Group published a series of posts throughout the year that address the deeper issues at the heart of making real organizational change. Of particular note are two that deal with how budget models need to adapt in order to support increasing agility: Bjarte Bogsnes wrote about how traditional budgeting models impede agility. Jutta Eckstein, Eric Abelen, and Hendrik Esser discussed practical approaches to tailoring your budgeting approach to the state of your organization.
Women in Agile Panel Discussions
As part of the Agile20Reflect festival in February, Agile Alliance partnered with Agile Testing Days to kick off a great series of Women in Agile panel discussions featuring a stellar roster of Agile leaders, including Linda Rising, Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, Mary Poppendieck, Ash Coleman-Hynie, Johanna Rothman, Faiza Youzuf, Gitte Klitgaard, and many others. The panels covered a wide range of topics including the early days of Agile, shifting between different cultures, how Agile team roles have changed over time, and how we can help support each other in cultivating Agile leaders.
An Experience Report from the Amazon Rainforest
Gaëtan Belbeoc’h shared one of the most interesting Experience Reports of the year at XP2021 in June. In 3 years of Feedback Using Tribal Leadership Techniques from the Amazon Rainforest (an Agile Alliance Member Exclusive) he discussed applying practices he learned from living with indigenous tribes in the Amazon to leading XP teams working on complex projects.
Where are we with Scrumban?
In August, Corey Ladas shared his observations on the origins and meaning of Scrumban and how it has evolved since he published his original essay on Scrumban.
“The immediate object of Scrumban is the Lean production of software. The ultimate object of Scrumban is continuous improvement. If continuous delivery is a necessary condition to achieve continuous improvement, then Scrumban is a strategy to achieve continuous delivery.” – Corey Ladas
Agile2021 Keynote Panel
There were many fantastic sessions at Agile2021! One that really stands out is the keynote conversation that Alistair Cockburn, Jutta Eckstein, and Gabrielle Benefield (an Agile Alliance Member Exclusive) had about using Agile to drive innovation for sustainability and nudging the world into a better place.
Agile Coaching Network
Each month on the Agile Coaching Network podcast, host Ray Arell and a team of experts that includes Hendrik Esser, Shawna Cullinan, Diana Larsen, and Jörg Pietruszka, explore hot topics suggested by the community. The October ACN featured digging into how the pandemic has shaped the future of work and how to convince leaders to change.
Agile Tech Talks
Extreme Programming Explained reminds us, “Software development teams where everyone is alike, while comfortable, are not effective.” The November Agile Tech Talks discussion about the Accessible Developer Experience with Dave Dame, Alicia Jarvis, and Jimmy Judd went deep into how software development environments still have a long way to go to effectively support everyone on the team. It was one of the best conversations of the year! View the recording of the session here (and Agile Alliance Member Exclusive).
Take the time to go back and explore
If you have a bit of slack in your schedule as we wrap up the year, grab a beverage and take a few minutes to enjoy one or more of these selections. Thank you to all of the Agile Alliance members whose support makes it possible for us to produce and sponsor such an incredible variety of great content!
