“Being the Agile geek that I am, I couldn’t help but assess the prospects for my round of golf based on the weather forecast, and plan in an Agile manner accordingly. In fact, golf is a pretty Agile pastime anyway - in both senses of the word! - as there is certainly a lot of incremental delivery involved in getting a ball from the tee to the hole.

When the heavens opened the other day, I knew my round would be ruined in terms of getting a good score, but I had come prepared with my big umbrella, and was able to react in a manner that provided me with enjoyment and satisfaction - the ultimate goal of the “project” - through adapting to the circumstances.

I even utilised some “pairing” through playing two balls off the tee, so I got the most practice out of the day, and will take some good learnings forward into the next stage of the project - hopefully this time abroad in bright sunshine!”

As well as that, though, ADAPT also uses some of the best bits from traditional project management methodologies, providing the best of all worlds from a project management perspective.

ADAPT is completely flexible and responsive, and has been utilised extremely effectively in many projects over the last few years.

The method is incremental and iterative - obviously for an Agile methodology - and emphasises continuous user involvement in the process. There are generally 3 phases of a project in the DSDM methodology - pre-project, project life-cycle, and post-project.

In the UK, DSDM was developed by the DSDM Consortium, and is called Atern in its latest version.

Changes in the weather, changes of mind as to what is the most fun attraction to visit during a particular day, and even changes of mood have all contributed to our having to adapt to updated requirements whilst running the complicated project of keeping the kids happy in the holidays.

Those of us with multiple children have even utilised a system of Pairing to get two (or more) children working on the same thing at once - giving us some vital breathing space and the opportunity to refactor our plans based on updated goals.

Once again, it just shows you how Agile impacts on all our lives (at least, all those of us who work here, anyway!).

Like most things to do with Agile, XP was first developed as a methodology for software development, but has been adapted and utilised for all forms of project management since its origin.

In common with all Agile practices, XP has a responsive element and delivers stages of the project incrementally, allowing for requirements updates and improved productivity. Other elements of XP include Pairing - where 2 people work on the same issue at once - and focusing on features of the project only when they are required.

Obviously this is going to be disappointing to those of you who were looking forward to engaging with such Agile and project management superstars as John Seddon, Mary Poppendieck, Don Reinertsen, Chris Potts, and Charles Handy; but in a truly Agile style, the event is going to react to the changing circumstances, and be revised to suit the new requirements.

Keep checking back for more info about the rescheduling and how you can participate in what is certain to be one of the Agile events of the year.

The basic principles of Scrum were devised for software development practices, but are adaptable (as befits anything to do with Agile!) for any type of project management. Essentially, Scrum provides a framework of iterative and incremental delivery of a project, utilising Sprints (pre-defined time periods) to deliver tangible elements of the overall project.

One of the key principles of Scrum is that the requirements of the project can change during its implementation, thus making Scrum a very adaptable and responsive methodology.

We’ve all worked with quite a few of these over the years, and recognise the same good traits in them all:

- The enthusiasm and dedication of the people who work there.

- The willingness to try and change from the ground up.

- The friendly and relaxed nature of the office environment.

Unfortunately, though, we’ve all come across the same bad traits in these same organisations:

- The length of time it takes to get anything authorised.

- The multiple stakeholders almost never being in the same room at the same time.

- The “if it aint broke, don’t fix it” mentality from the top down.

Of course, there are exceptions to this - usually those multinationals that have adopted Agile practices as a result of an Agile consultancy (whether us or someone else) going in there to sort them out!

“Working on the train is actually a fairly Agile pursuit in itself. Aside from the obvious possibilities for delays and alterations to the timetable that have to be reacted to, there’s always something about the journey that makes it different from the last one.

For example, on the odd occasion I don’t sit in the Quiet Coach, I’m always struck by how I have to almost close myself off from my environment in order to continue with what I’m doing. Periodically, of course, I snap out of that deep concentration, and end up listening to a 1-sided conversation conducted via mobile phone.

It’s on these occasions that I’m glad of my capacity for reactive management skills, and utilise the practice of incremental delivery to save what it is I’m doing, and refactor my workload according to what I’ve achieved so far, and what’s achievable in the time remaining of the journey”.

Whilst some of you might think that’s stretching the point a bit, we like to think it simply reinforces the fact that we really do have Agile running through our veins!

Charles will be at the Forum from around lunchtime, staying with us for the workshops in the afternoon, then no doubt delighting and inspiring us with his dinner time talk. We already knew we had a great line up of people at the event, and Charles Handy is the icing on the cake. Bring on 30th September!