Human Side Of Agile How To Help Your Team Deliver

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The Human Side of Agile

Author : Gil Broza
Publisher : 3p Vantage Media
Page : 346 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Agile software development
ISBN : 0988001624

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The Human Side of Agile by Gil Broza Pdf

As an Agile team leader, your biggest challenge is also your biggest asset. The human side of Agile is tricky. It's the least manageable, understood, and appreciated asset in an Agile environment. Even if your customers are reasonably happy and your developers seem to be doing okay, you know your team is capable of more: delivering great products and staying ahead of ever-changing demands. You need a team that's self-organized, energetic, and flexible, even in tough situations. But how do you build it and lead it? Whether you're a ScrumMaster, project manager, functional manager, or team leader, you want to feel good about using Agile and to create the conditions for great results. But the project management skills you honed in traditional environments don't always apply to the role of Agile team leader. The Human Side of Agile fills this gap, guiding you to: Establish yourself as a confident and capable leader who adds value Build and lead an engaged team that can handle almost any challenge Cultivate collaboration and a continuous improvement mind-set Reap the full benefits of Agile in the real world with real people "I just found the next must-read book for our entire leadership team." "Tricia Broderick, Director of Development, TechSmith" "This book is up there with Peopleware, with concrete examples you can use immediately." "Dave Rooney, Sherpa, Shopify" "Agile teams need effective leaders who 'get' the people stuff. Without that you're merely going through the Agile motions." "Scott W. Ambler, co-creator of Disciplined Agile Delivery" While readable from cover to cover, the book is written as practical answers to the 80+ most relevant and pressing questions that team leaders ask, such as: "How Can I Help the Team Buy In?" "What If I Can't Work Full-Time as the Team's Leader?" "What Actions Will Build the Team's Trust in Me?" "How Can I Mitigate the Damage of Performance Reviews?" "What If a Member Doesn't Fit With the Team?" "How Can We Focus on Our Work With So Many Meetings?" "How Do I Get Stakeholders and Managers on My Side?" "How Can I Make Changes Stick?" "How Do We Avoid Reverting to Old Behaviors?" (Click on Look Inside to browse the complete table of contents.) The book's forewords are by Jim Highsmith and Christopher Avery. Gil Broza, founder and chief specialist at 3P Vantage, has successfully mentored Agile leaders and their teams since 2004. Gil's guidance helps professionals adopt effective, humane, and responsible approaches to software development.

The Agile Mind-Set

Author : Gil Broza
Publisher : CreateSpace
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2015-07-21
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1514769336

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The Agile Mind-Set by Gil Broza Pdf

Are you frustrated or disenchanted by the results of your Agile approach? Does Agile sound like a good idea, but you're not sure how to explain it beyond roles, practices, and meetings? Is your team going through the motions, but it's still business as usual? The missing piece is the Agile mind-set -- the thinking that makes Agile processes work. This book is your compass for the Agile journey. Without prescribing any process, practice, or tool, it will show you how practitioners approach: Deciding what to work on Planning and doing the work Engaging people and performing as teams Working better Pragmatic and dogma-free, this book will help you understand what it means to be Agile and how to bring others along. I want to give this book to every executive and manager who asks why the transition is taking so long. I also recommend it for all Agile practitioners as a valuable source of insight beyond the processes and techniques described in other books. -Roger Brown, Agile Coach, Agile Crossing Gil Broza is a kindred spirit to the pioneers of the Agile movement. He reminds us of the core values, principles, and behaviors of this enduring effort to bring joy and delight to producing software. To those new to the pursuit, he brings a lantern for the journey. -Rich Sheridan, CEO, Menlo Innovations The book's forewords are by Jim Highsmith and Linda Rising. Gil Broza, founder and principal mentor at 3P Vantage, has been supporting Agile leaders and their teams since 2004. Gil's guidance helps professionals adopt effective, humane, and responsible approaches to software development. His previous book was The Human Side of Agile.

Agile for Non-Software Teams

Author : Gil Broza
Publisher : 3p Vantage
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2019-12-19
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0988001659

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Agile for Non-Software Teams by Gil Broza Pdf

You can't achieve business agility by copying practices from software/IT teams. This practical book, free of jargon and full of non-tech examples, will help you consider, design, start, grow, and sustain an Agile way of working that fits your unique context.

Zombie Scrum Survival Guide

Author : Johannes Schartau,Christiaan Verwijs,Barry Overeem
Publisher : Addison-Wesley Professional
Page : 342 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2020-11-13
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9780136523376

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Zombie Scrum Survival Guide by Johannes Schartau,Christiaan Verwijs,Barry Overeem Pdf

Escape “Zombie Scrum” and Get Real Value from Agile! “Professional Scrum and Zombie Scrum are mortal enemies in eternal combat. If you relax your guard, Zombie Scrum comes back. This guide helps you stay on your guard, providing very practical tips for identifying when you have become a Zombie and how to stop this from happening. A must-have for any Zombie Scrum hunter.” --Dave West, CEO, Scrum.org “Barry, Christiaan, and Johannes have done a magnificent job of accumulating successful experiences and sharing their inspiring stories in this very practical book. They don't shy away from telling it like it is, which is why their proposals are always as useful as they are grounded in reality.” --Henri Lipmanowicz, cofounder, Liberating Structures Millions of professionals use Scrum. It is the #1 approach to agile software development in the world. Even so, by some estimates, over 70% of Scrum adoptions fall flat. Developers find themselves using “Zombie Scrum” processes that look like Scrum, but are slow, lifeless, and joyless. Scrum is just not working for them. Zombie Scrum Survival Guide reveals why Scrum runs aground and shows how to supercharge your Scrum outcomes, while having a lot more fun along the way. Humorous, visual, and extremely relatable, it offers practical approaches, exercises, and tools for escaping Zombie Scrum. Even if you are surrounded by skeptics, this book will be the antidote to help you build more of what users need, ship faster, improve more continuously, interact more successfully in any team, and feel a whole lot better about what you are doing. Suddenly, one day soon, you will remember: that is why we adopted Scrum in the first place! Learn how Zombie Scrum infects you, why it spreads, and how to inoculate yourself Get closer to your stakeholders, and wake up to their understanding of value Discover why Zombie teams can't learn, and what to do about it Clear away the specific obstacles to real continuous improvement Make self-managed teams real so people can behave like humans, not Zombies Zombie Scrum Survival Guide is for Scrum Masters, Scrum practitioners, Agile coaches and leaders, and everyone who wants to transform the promises of Scrum into reality. Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

Agility Shift

Author : Pamela Meyer
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 187 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2016-11-03
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781351862400

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Agility Shift by Pamela Meyer Pdf

As contrary as it sounds, "planning" -- as we traditionally understand the term--can be the worst thing a company can do. Consider that volatile weather events disrupt trusted supply chains, markets, and promised delivery schedules. Ever-shifting geo-political tensions, as well as internal political upheaval within U.S. and global governments, derail long-planned new ventures. Technology failures block opportunities. Competitors suddenly change their product or release date; your team cannot meet the pace of innovations in your market niche, leaving you sidelined. There are myriad ways in the current business environment for a company's well-considered business plans to go awry. Most business schools continue to prepare managers to be effective in stable and predictable environments, conditions that, if they ever existed at all, are long gone. The Agility Shift shows business leaders exactly how to make the radical mindset and strategy shift necessary to create an agile, entrepreneurial organization that can innovate and thrive in complex, ever-changing contexts. As author Pamela Meyer explains, there is much more involved than a reconfiguration of the org chart and job descriptions. It requires relinquishing the illusion of control at the very foundation of most management training and business practice. Despite most leaders' approaches, "Agility is not simply accelerated planning." Unlike many agility books on the market, The Agility Shift provides specific, actionable strategies and tactics for leaders at all levels of the organization to put into practice immediately to improve agility and achieve results.

Agile for Everybody

Author : Matt LeMay
Publisher : O'Reilly Media
Page : 162 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2018-10-10
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781492033486

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Agile for Everybody by Matt LeMay Pdf

The Agile movement provides real, actionable answers to the question that keeps many company leaders awake at night: How do we stay successful in a fast-changing and unpredictable world? Agile has already transformed how modern companies build and deliver software. This practical book demonstrates how entire organizations—from product managers and engineers to marketers and executives—can put Agile to work. Author Matt LeMay explains Agile in clear, jargon-free terms and provides concrete and actionable steps to help any team put its values and principles into practice. Examples from a wide variety of organizations, including small nonprofits and global financial enterprises, bring to life the on-the-ground realities of Agile across industries and functions. Understand exactly what Agile is and why it matters Use Agile to address your organization’s specific needs and goals Take customer centricity from theory into practice Stop wasting time in "report and critique" meetings and start making better decisions Create a harmonious cycle of learning, collaborating, and delivering Learn from Agile experts at companies like IBM, Spotify, and Coca-Cola

Individuals and Interactions

Author : Ken Howard,Barry Rogers
Publisher : Pearson Education
Page : 229 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2011-04-01
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9780321719164

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Individuals and Interactions by Ken Howard,Barry Rogers Pdf

“In my opinion, this is the handbook for Agile teams. I have been wishing for this book since we implemented Agile several years ago. In many Agile process books, the team aspect of Agile has been glossed over in favor of the technical aspects; this book is a welcome change.” --Sarah Edrie, Director of Quality Engineering, Harvard Business School “Cloud Computing, Distributed Architecture, Test Driven Development...these are simple to master compared to building an agile, efficient, and top-performing team. The path from skilled developer/tester to successful manager, team leader, and beyond is now more easily attainable with the insights, knowledge, and guidance provided by Ken Howard and Barry Rogers in Individuals and Interactions: An Agile Guide.” --R.L. Bogetti, www.RLBogetti.com, Lead System Designer, Baxter Healthcare “This book provides fantastic insight on how individuals act and relate as a team. Ken and Barry give great examples and exercises to help the reader understand behaviors of each individual and use this knowledge to perform better as a team.” --Lisa Shoop, Director Product Development, Sabre-Holdings “Individuals and Interactions is a masterfully crafted must-read for anyone who is serious about understanding and applying the human-centered values of Agile development. It is like Patrick Lencioni meets the Poppendiecks to write ‘Agile through the Looking-Glass.’ Here the ‘Looking-Glass’ is the powerful DISC framework, and we see it used to enable different kind of TDD (Team-Driven Development) through the use of stories, examples, models, and guidance.” --Brad Appleton, Agile coach/consultant in a Fortune 100 telecom company; coauthor of Software Configuration Management Patterns “This book is essential reading for any engineering team that’s serious about Agile development. Its chapters on team dynamics and development lay the foundation for learning all of the factors that enable a team to transform itself into an Agile success story.” --Bernard Farrell, Consultant Software Engineer at EMC Corporation Great emphasis is typically placed on the “mechanics” of agile development--its processes and tools. It’s easy to forget that the Agile Manifesto values individuals and interactions ahead of processes and tools. You can gain powerful benefits by refocusing on the people side of agile development. This book will show you how. It’s your practical user’s guide to solving the problems agile teams encounter, packed with stories, best practices, exercises, and tips you can actually use. Step by step, you’ll learn how to get teams to truly work as teams, not as disconnected individuals. Along the way, you’ll find profoundly realistic advice on communication, motivation, collaboration, change, group dynamics, and much more. Whether you are an agile project manager, ScrumMaster, product owner, developer, trainer, or consultant, this book will help you make your agile environment more productive, more effective, and more personally fulfilling.

PMI-ACP Project Management Institute Agile Certified Practitioner Exam Study Guide

Author : J. Ashley Hunt
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 408 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2018-01-22
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9781119434634

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PMI-ACP Project Management Institute Agile Certified Practitioner Exam Study Guide by J. Ashley Hunt Pdf

The ultimate study package for the new PMI-ACP exam The PMI-ACP Project Management Institute Agile Certified Practitioner Exam Study Guide is an all-in-one package for comprehensive exam preparation. This up-to-date guide is fully aligned with the latest version of the exam, featuring coverage of 100 percent of the exam domains. Expanded coverage of AGILE includes the basic principles, value-driven delivery, stakeholder engagement, team performance, adaptive planning, problem detection and resolution, and continuous improvement to align with the A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® 6th Edition) and its increased emphasis on agile, adaptive and iterative practices. In-depth discussion merges with hands-on exercises and real-world scenarios to provide a well-rounded review of essential exam concepts, while the online learning center provides an assessment test, chapter tests, a practice exam, and study aids to help you ensure complete preparation for the big day. Master 100 percent of the exam objectives, including expanded AGILE coverage Reinforce critical concepts with hands-on practice and real-world scenarios Test your knowledge with challenging chapter review questions One year of FREE access to the Sybex online test bank featuring practice tests, flashcards, a glossary, and more Project management is one of the most in-demand skills in today's job market, making more and more employers turn to AGILE methodologies to enhance delivery and results. The PMI-ACP certification shows employers that you have demonstrated mastery of essential project management skills and a practical understanding of adaptive, iterative processes; this validation puts you among the ranks of qualified project management professionals employers are desperately seeking, and the PMI-ACP Project Management Institute Agile Certified Practitioner Exam Study Guide is your one-stop resource for exam success.

Crystal Clear

Author : Alistair Paul Becker,Alistair Cockburn
Publisher : Pearson Education
Page : 513 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2004-10-19
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9780132702492

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Crystal Clear by Alistair Paul Becker,Alistair Cockburn Pdf

Carefully researched over ten years and eagerly anticipated by the agile community, Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams is a lucid and practical introduction to running a successful agile project in your organization. Each chapter illuminates a different important aspect of orchestrating agile projects. Highlights include Attention to the essential human and communication aspects of successful projects Case studies, examples, principles, strategies, techniques, and guiding properties Samples of work products from real-world projects instead of blank templates and toy problems Top strategies used by software teams that excel in delivering quality code in a timely fashion Detailed introduction to emerging best-practice techniques, such as Blitz Planning, Project 360o, and the essential Reflection Workshop Question-and-answer with the author about how he arrived at these recommendations, including where they fit with CMMI, ISO, RUP, XP, and other methodologies A detailed case study, including an ISO auditor's analysis of the project Perhaps the most important contribution this book offers is the Seven Properties of Successful Projects. The author has studied successful agile projects and identified common traits they share. These properties lead your project to success; conversely, their absence endangers your project.

Agile HR

Author : Natal Dank,Riina Hellström
Publisher : Kogan Page Publishers
Page : 329 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2020-11-03
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781789665871

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Agile HR by Natal Dank,Riina Hellström Pdf

In the new world of work, agility is a business imperative. Agile HR is a practical guide written specifically for people professionals on how the HR function can develop agile processes and practices that save time, boost performance and support overall business goals. From small tech start-ups or large traditional companies, organizations need to be fast, flexible and digitally empowered to succeed. However, too many companies are stuck with siloed, compliance-driven HR processes that work in opposition to the business rather than supporting it. This results in the view that HR is slow and out of touch. However, Agile HR shows that this doesn't need to be the case. Covering every aspect of the HR function from people processes, ways of working and HR services to organization design, operating models and HR teams, Agile HR is an essential guide for all HR practitioners wanting to make their HR practices agile and drive business performance but don't know where to start. As well as guidance on how to deal with resistance, manage a backlog and deal with constraints, there is also invaluable guidance on how HR can prioritize effectively and assess which activities to pursue, which to develop, which to rework and which to abandon in order to achieve continuous business improvement. Supported by case studies from organizations who have seen the benefits of an agile approach to HR including Sky Betting & Gaming and MUJI, this is critical reading for all HR professionals in organizations of any size needing to adopt fast, flexible and evolving agile approaches to effectively compete in the new world of work.

Human-Centered Agile

Author : Joe Montalbano,Brad Lehman
Publisher : CRC Press
Page : 231 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2023-08-23
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781000915631

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Human-Centered Agile by Joe Montalbano,Brad Lehman Pdf

This book is a guide on how to apply Human-Centered Design (HCD) practices to an Agile product development model that is used widely throughout industry and government, where it is applied primarily to software and technology development efforts. This has been an ongoing industry challenge due to the fact that HCD prioritizes time spent understanding the problems to be solved (time spent in the problem space), while Agile prioritizes a fast hypothesize-and-deliver model (time spent in the solution space). Organizations that attempt an Agile transformation abandon it either because it was too difficult or because it did not deliver the hoped-for results. At the same time, efforts to improve the design and experience of their products using Human-Centered Design have a tendency to fall short because it can be difficult to see the ROI of design efforts, even while companies like McKinsey document design-driven successes. What’s more, a company that successfully adopts Agile often seems to have an even harder time implementing HCD and vice versa. This is particularly disappointing since Agile and HCD should be mutually supportive. In practice, Agile teams often bypass HCD efforts in favor of finishing their goals and thinking they are doing well, only to have their work product fail to meet the actual end user’s needs. At first the team will become indignant. “We followed the expert guidance of our Product Owner, the ‘Voice of the Customer,’” they will say, followed by “but... it met all of the Acceptance Criteria, they should love it.” It’s a failure of Agile that this type of sub-optimal delivery happens so regularly and predictably. The fact that team responses can be so accurately predicted in advance (by those who’ve seen this movie many times before) point to a process failure or inefficiency that is widespread and desperately needs to be addressed. Alternatively, teams will invest too heavily in up-front discovery efforts that slow down delivery to an unacceptable point, often while also failing to capture research-based findings in a way that matures the overall strategic product or portfolio understanding. The cost of misfiring goes far beyond a bad delivery or an angry customer. Decreased team morale drives poorer future performance (cost), turnover if left unchecked (more cost), and non-productive blame sessions that lead to degraded faith in the Agile product development model itself. This book identifies solutions based on successful methods of integrating HCD practices by phase into an ongoing agile delivery model, from the discovery through implementation and evaluation, including: key success factors for an HCD/Agile engagement approach, critical points of delivery, and strategies for integrating HCD into teams based on the existing design maturity of an organization or product team.

The Professional Agile Leader

Author : Ron Eringa,Kurt Bittner,Laurens Bonnema
Publisher : Addison-Wesley Professional
Page : 314 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2022-05-25
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780137591459

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The Professional Agile Leader by Ron Eringa,Kurt Bittner,Laurens Bonnema Pdf

Hone Your Agile Leadership Skills to Help Your Organization Transform and Thrive To leverage the immense opportunities associated with accelerating change, organizations need teams capable of trying new ideas quickly, learning from their experiences, and adapting based on that learning. Helping these teams to grow and thrive requires agile leaders who support, inspire, and encourage, and who can leave behind the management skills of directing, monitoring, and rewarding or punishing. The Professional Agile Leader is a realistic, practical guide, written by experienced agile leaders who share their collective experiences in helping agile leaders to grow responsive and adaptive teams. They structure powerful lessons around a case study based on decades of experience helping agile leaders achieve and sustain agile transformation. Best of all, they never settle for high-level hand-waving--they show you how it's really done. Reignite once-successful organizations that have lost their way Form cross-functional teams and empower them with purpose Learn to let go, as your teams start taking more responsibility Overcome forces that want to reel you back into the "old rules" Realign the whole organization, since agile and traditional models can't coexist forever Achieve the most challenging goal of all: changing culture Great agile leaders aren't born that way--they're regular people who care deeply about helping others achieve shared goals and have discovered a better way to lead. Whatever your role in the organization, this guide will help you master those skills and mindsets a whole lot faster. "Drawing on vast experience, Ron, Kurt, and Laurens tease out practical tips and patterns for good leadership [and show] how a leader can help shape the environment for agile teams to succeed. . . . The narrative style of the book makes it easy to read, and I am sure there will be many times that you see yourself in it." --From the Foreword by Dave West, CEO and Product Owner, Scrum.org Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

People Over Process

Author : Michael K. Levine
Publisher : CRC Press
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2019-09-23
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781000682540

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People Over Process by Michael K. Levine Pdf

This book is about improving and sustaining agility by focusing on people over process, as the first agile value advocates, and is the third and final book in the author's Lean and Agile Software trilogy. The first – A Tale of Two Systems: Lean and Agile Software Development for Business Leaders – describes what agile is and why we do it. The second – A Tale of Two Transformations: Bringing Lean and Agile Software Development to Life – guides leaders in transforming their organizations to adopt this approach. All three books mix description and elaboration of theory with practical demonstration in fictional companies and projects. This new, third book – People over Process: Leadership for Agility – presents a model of facilitative leadership for agility, which informs the entire book. It begins by describing the roots of the agile movement, which motivates the centrality of people and the need for leadership. The leadership model is then presented, very simply: rigor, alignment, efficiency, through frameworks. Leadership is considered for all team members, and then for the special case of the responsibilities of leaders in formal positions of organizational authority. With this strong background presented, the book proceeds to describe and demonstrate common and highly useful frameworks for agility. The fictional Pacifica Bank is introduced, and we see the Pacifica team work through architecture, project planning, team structure, governance, scrum meeting, and ultimately retrospectives, using frameworks that have been presented. An Appendix summarizes the most useful frameworks for future reference. Throughout the book concepts are illustrated with vignettes from my experience (in the didactic sections) and with the Pacifica fictional case study. The key benefits of the book are to make everyone involved in agile work more effective and fulfilled. Essentially, since agile was first introduced almost two decades ago, the primary focus in practice has been on process. The "scrum" methodology was developed and promulgated, and has been widely adopted. This has been on balance broadly positive, but as an industry we have progressed to the point where following the steps of a methodology, particularly one that seeks to implement concepts where the first value is "People over Process," has reached its limits. The reader of this book: • Gains a powerful, simple model of leadership that enables the "People" in "People over Process;" • Sees these principles in action in a fictional company, making agile leadership understandable and engaging; • Improves their ability to participate in and lead agility; • Learns extraordinarily useful "frameworks" that help in the most important activities in agile software. In short, the reader will be better at delivering valuable software solutions, more valuable to their organizations, and more fulfilled in their work.

Agile Performance Improvement

Author : Robert Winter
Publisher : Apress
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2015-05-11
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9781484208922

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Agile Performance Improvement by Robert Winter Pdf

"1+1=3. That is the equation that summarizes the theme of this book. The book’s message is to integrate the developmental principles of Agile with the result-focused approaches integral to performance consulting. Your outcomes in shaping human performance will be significant--and greater than if you only used one of these models. This is a book for anyone who seeks to work collaboratively with leaders to bring about continuously improving and sustainable organizational change." --Dana Gaines Robinson, coauthor of Performance Consulting Agile Performance Improvement demonstrates the mutual benefits that accrue to the worlds of performance consulting and agile software development when the values and principles of both are blended synergistically under the guidance of practitioners skilled in both. The agile performance improvement model blends the principles of human performance technology with the frameworks and practices of Agile. The result is an approach that maximizes the value of interactions among the consultant, the work team, and the customer. Unlike traditional end-to-end waterfall processes, agile performance improvement delivers value continuously and in small increments, relentlessly focusing on outcomes of value to the customer. Building on structures of Agile that are used in software development, such as Scrum, the agile performance improvement model considers the human component of holistic solutions in establishing a continuous stream of value. Bob Winter, a performance consultant, was the product owner for the corporate education scrum supporting an agile transition initiative for hundreds of engineering teams. From this cross-disciplinary experience, he discovered that the two cultures, two languages, and two methodologies of performance consulting and agile software development are—far from being incongruent, incompatible, or irrelevant to each other—in fact ideally suited to complement and support each other. Being agile improves the effectiveness of the performance consultant, and applying the lessons of human performance technology improves the effectiveness of software development teams. In Agile Performance Improvement, Winter teaches performance consultants how to apply agile principles, values, and methods usefully to the tasks of optimizing human performance in areas of practice not only adjoining but also well beyond the realm of software and IT engineering, such as corporate learning solutions, human resources systems, and non-software products. Conversely, he shows engineering teams immersed in an agile environment how to boost their performance using the principles and techniques taught and cultivated by performance consultants. The author, who has worked extensively on both sides of the traditional divide, recounts entertainingly but informatively how both sparks and fur can fly when geeks encounter people people.