Contractor - thinking about doing an Agile qual

[HannsG]

Hi guys,

CIMA qualified accountant with 11 years post qual, done PRINCE2 Practitioner, but I am finding myself working now on huge transformation programmes. Mainly IT and Strategy focused. Especially since I started contracting.

Currently a senior BA and I might do BCS Foundation.

But is Agile worth investing in? It really seems the go to nowadays and increasingly its becoming more of a Buzzword. Especially in utilities.

SAFe? Seems like a good one and interesting.

Anyone have experience of doing it? I am loathe to do PRINCE2 Agile as I do not think it is rated.

Could always do APM?

God knows. Not looking forward to studying.

[Ynox]

SAFe is a pile of crap and a pain. Not a fan of it.

I've done a couple of scrum courses in my time and use it on a daily basis. It's ok, but a lot of people get _very_ evangelical about it and forget that it's merely a tool to help us get to our end goal. I get annoyed when it seems as if a perfect burndown chart is more important than fixing live production issues, but maybe I'm a bit old school!

As a contractor it may be worth it, if nothing else to help you get through the initial CV screening by recruiters.

[Never you mind]

You need to be an Agile coach these days. I still think it's a load of bks but it seems to be a thing. There is something like 7 principles to being an Agile coach, seems to be a bit "new agey", empowering, facilitator, counsellor etc etc ... They are replacing Scrum masters with these hipster types at my current work place. I.T ain't what it used to be.

[anonymous-user]

I started with DSDM back in ‘95, started coaching early 2000s with XP and became a scrum master in 04. It’s not new.

Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 9th February 01:27

[AW111]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I have spent most of my working life in small teams (5 or less), and most of what I've read on 'agile' is just repackaging common small-team behaviour, eg. close overlap between spec/dev/test/deploy, fast response to changing requirements, etc. I can see it being more relevant to larger organisations.

[Notshortnottall]

Tbh I'd just learn the lingo so you know what's being talked about.

In my experience, anything 'Agile' is just a bdisation of working practices to suit whatever is going wrong with the project at the time i.e. "why hasn't the widget been delivered to plan - ahh, 'cos we're Agile"