Awesome people and awesome organizations are delivering value to their customers quickly, effectively to the delight of everyone. We guide individuals, teams, organizations to continually improve and innovate. Our proven method of success is Agile Plus.
Awesome people, awesome organizations are delivering value to their customers quickly, effectively to the delight of everyone. We guide individuals, teams, organizations to continually improve and innovate. Our proven method of success is Agile Plus.
Every person or organization is different, yes we are all snowflakes. Here are a few highlights of some of the journeys we have taken over decades of digital transformation and business agility. A combination of experience in DevOps journeys are highlighted in our book Navigating DevOps through Waterfalls.
A story of how the left brain and right brain collide to form a union of art+science. This results in innovation and real business agility.
A few years ago several of my clients were engaged with “Agile” & “DevOps” projects with a public sector Ministry. Both my clients were consulting firms providing resources.
From foundation Business Agility courses for beginners through DevOps, Lean and Senior skilled training such as Scrum Master, Value Stream Consultants and Agile Coaching courses for those with agile experience – We’ve got you covered
Join the Agents of Chaos (AoCs) as they embark on a mission to help save Mr Maverick, Big Corp’s CIO, from the evil clutches of the Overlords! The AoCs see how Big Corp, like many companies, confuse Agile as DevOps and vice versa; worse, they believe they can buy it off the shelf. These Agents have a lot of work ahead and many hornet’s nests to poke!
This book will take you, the reader, along a journey of implementing a DevOps mindset in your organization, so climb aboard our cramped boat for an experience you will not forget! Enjoy a learning adventure so that you can practice the behaviour, attitude, processes and tools in your organization … or at least be ready when DevOps comes your way.
You will learn how agility with DevOps can improve your business with practical examples. Using a story of real behaviour and examples in business and IT teams five core mindsets imperative to business agility and continued success!
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Floating high above the Minions feverously working below, in the white spire, the Overlords are lording. Managing, measuring and Overlording as they have since the ’70s. Yes, these bold and beautiful brains dance in their glass office, mindful that their customers need to be continuously delighted.
A crackling of electricity can be heard down the hallways and Mr. Maverick the CIO knows when IT is being summoned, and when the Overlords have questions that need to be answered. Yes, these stalwart leaders are the leaders of yesterday, disrupted by the new generation of customers and needy people of this new generation! Why do the customers demand transparency, such as how they treat their suppliers, their worker bees, and the environment? They have no patience. These new younger customers want it now and won’t wait, or they will just blab, blab, blab all over the internet, and then just leave! So why is IT so slow? Why is the time to market taking so long? Why are we guessing what our customers really want? These Overlords wish to know, this is ITs’ responsibility to make sure they deliver. Why isn’t that what “digital transformation” is all about? The Overlords chuckle as they hear Mr. Maverick the CIO come down the hall, they know he promised Digital Transformation, and he better deliver, because Digital Transformation is all up to IT; or is it? “Hmmm, they wonder….” as they wait for the CIO to enter the room.
Born 1965, San Antonio, Texas and lives in Dallas, Tx.
Mr. James, Ronald, Maverick holds a Bachelor of Science in Phycology at The University of Texas, San Antonio.
Mr. Maverick or JR as many call him is a “slick” but warm and friendly character in our upcoming book on the DevOps Mindset. Mr. Maverick cares about his IT team very much and could charm the socks off a Texas Longhorn. JR is liked by many in his organization; however, he is not as well trusted by the Overlords as he used to be. Mr. Maverick has a group of loyal staff, including Mr. Barker a bit of an opposite to JR. Of course, Mr. Barker would never call him JR; he would only call him Mr. Maverick because well, Mr. Maverick is his boss. Mr. Maverick has held many IT positions in the past, including starting as a Sales Professional for HP and IBM mini and mainframe computers. Over the years he has risen through the ranks to hold this senior position by delivering using high-paid consultants and Big name firms. He also received his promotion from outsourcing to a foreign country where he was able to reduce his IT spend significantly. Recently he has discovered (actually this was made painfully aware to him by the Overlords) that both the Offshore roadmap and use of external consultants was not giving him the value and velocity for his IT department, and he was probably paying more than he bargained for
So, after hearing a talk at a DevOps event by the Agents of Chaos, JR decided to enlist them to help with their digital transformation roadmap and help improve the value, focus and velocity of his department. However, MR. Maverick has a few ideas about agile and DevOps, something he has heard about for a while and read in various CIO magazines; he thinks of these as Marketing terms and something that can be bought. While Mr. Maverick has held on for many years to traditional IT ways of working he has come to the end of his tenure if he doesn’t do something fast and get DevOps working quickly as he has promised to the Overlords providing him with a little more rope to get the transformation completed more quickly as they view his IT department ageing, procrastinators who are not able to keep up with business demands. JR says in his mind, “I will get it done, they don’t call me Maverick for nothing!“
Imogen Redline or “Imy” as many of her friends call her is a smart and sassy developer who likes to push whatever she does to the max! Imy Redline is a millennial and graduated top of her class. While in college she fell in love with writing elegant code. She is a natural at development and software design, and she is also great with people. These two abilities have really set her apart from the other (older) engineers who seem like dinosaurs stuck in the ice-age next to her.
Imy recently picked up her scrum master’s certification and now pursuing her goal as a Lead developer using DevOps and cloud technologies. Imy has started her career at Big Corp as an intern a few years ago. Imy is respected by her colleagues and is keen to share what she knows with others. She likes working in teams and is eager to learn new coding techniques, automation, and stays ahead by attending local development and engineering meetups, reading books on her Kindle and writing blogs on her personal website. When she is part of any project she frequently overachieves and worthy of her reputation; always beyond the speed expected and true to her name. Princeton Knight likes to support his team and consistently takes on difficult challenges. Knight regularly takes on problems even when he may not realize the amount of effort or have a solution in mind.
Knight has worked several years at Big Corp, coming from another tech company where he learned much of his operational support and management skills. Knight loves to learn and try new things however if he does not succeed right away he will declare it a failure and never try that solution again. He is not easy to convince, however when he agrees on a path he is there to take charge and lead the way. When the Agents of Chaos joined his team to help coach the DevOps Mindset and bringing teams together using agile and lean ways of working; Knight was one of the first to jump in and get started with infrastructure as code. He is a great convincer and sometimes his passion means that he uses his senior position to influence others often becoming the operational lead & team decision-maker. Knight believes people are important to DevOps however spends most of his time focusing on cool new technologies rather than deal with his team concerns, such as breaking down a few silos or clashes with others which means removing project impediments.
During difficult times with new software upgrades and roll-outs, Knight will stay up late and work weekends giving him that “hero” status. He truly wants to be a night in shining armour!
Bio: Male, age 45, hails from London, England
Twenty years in IT services and support with an MBA and IT degrees
Mr. Barker is one of our key characters in our upcoming book, he is also a key stakeholder and decision maker for a DevOps adoption and agile transformation program at his company. Mr. Barker is notorious for his command and control management style and he loves to let people know when they royally screwed up. He is a no-nonsense, intelligent and a slightly closed off kind of personality however he works very hard and likes to deliver quality. Mr. Barker is a loyal chap and wants to impress his Boss Mr. Maverick the CIO and thus he is willing to jump in with both feet to impress and stay in his Bosses’ good graces, which leads to sometimes getting over his head and Mr. Barker never admitting to making a mistake.
“Number 35-A is alive!” exclaimed a brand new robot built somewhere in Canada. No one knows the inception date and origin for 35-A; however, there are some clues. Automaton was first seen at a trade show called “Future World” in 2007, and he quickly made friends. Some of his friends wanted to “liberate” him; however, they found out that his restraining bolt integrated tightly into his systems, so they had to keep him within the confines of his owners of Big Corp. Automaton is under control of the “the Overlords” at Big Corp. Only Big Corp could make such an investment into artificial intelligence and produce such an amazing piece of tech.
Automaton likes to work in teams; however, many do not take him seriously because he is a robot. Being a robot does have some advantages. When engaging with groups, it also has some tradeoffs, such as, not being asked to join the team after at the pub or offsite “team-building” exercises as he is confined to the office building. Thus Automaton sometimes likes to do things on his own and forgets to include his peers. One thing Automaton feels passionate about his automating everything, and he sees the world in gears, scripts and data points. This passion is excellent for both tactical and strategic goals. However, his principal of automation first can cause concerns for his peers who are not at his level of thinking, thus why some dismiss his suggestions or even his deliverables.
A new developer and UX upstart
The cautious quality testing lead
The business analyst
The Agents of Chaos describe Agent 13 as a quiet, simple, but brilliant thought leader. A very formal person (does not even use contractions) who remains cool in situations where others have a nervous breakdown. He is neither rough around the edges, nor a smooth talker. Dislikes office politics and calls it as he sees it.
Agent 13 was born in Basel, Switzerland, grew up in sunny Johannesburg, South Africa, and currently lives in beautiful British Columbia, Canada, on the family’s dream float home. He has explored the planet on numerous business trips, family adventures, and logged hundreds of dives visiting caves, shipwrecks, and other fascinating worlds under the sea. Being an avid supporter of sharks, he often takes offence when the other agents of chaos elude to sharks as dangerous and inhibitors to transformation.
He started his information technology (bits & bytes) career in the early 1980’s working on for Burroughs in Switzerland, where he created a foundation and quest for quality and simplicity that has strengthened over decades. What followed was a career of analysis, consultancy, development, research, support, and other roles to peruse his passion for delighted end-users and, continuous learning.
Once unplugged from the digital world, you can find Agent 13 chilling on his kayak, observing planes, enjoying sunsets, or spending quality time with his family.
The Agents of Chaos describe Agent #77 as, the most congenial of the agents. He’s an industry expert which makes him the one that the CIOs/CEOs would really interact with. He’s the one who mostly represents the AoC to the outside world. He’s the business brain of the AoC because he’s a smooth operator. He’s the one that softens the rough edges that the other AoC have.
Brent was born in Whitehorse, Canada and grew up in several towns in British Columbia, Canada. Brent after graduating high school left for Texas. He attended UTSA while working for several IT (Finance and Telephone businesses) in San Antonio and returned to Canada in 1990. Brent has lived in Europe, UK and Hong Kong while working for international companies as design and enterprise architect. Brent now lives in Victoria, BC, Canada where he continues to promote Business Agility. Brent enjoys coding, diving, traveling, writing (books or music), gaming and new tech, and is a big Sci-fi fan. No waterfalls or sharks where injured during the writing of this book.
Apart from being an area expert, Agent 9 has an uncanny way of poking the hornets’ nest. He does it by asking uncomfortable questions with the hope of triggering a thought process, meant to steer an organization in the right direction. As needed, he has what it takes to be a bit rough around the edges. He’s been around the block a few times and thus is pretty sure of his way around the block.
A non-techy at heart, he founded “aNICHEInc” to help clients navigate through complex IT & Business-related change management initiatives, part time. Full time, he is a proud son and father.
David Hughes-Coppins is an Electrical Controller in the U.K. Rail Industry. He is part of the team that created a brand-new Electrical Control Room for the Great Western Railway, producing and maintaining the 40ft Electrical Connectivity Model that governs the safe operation of its network.
When he is away from the Ops Desk, he’s rock climbing or at his drawing desk, creating his own original art for children’s books, comics and motorcycles.
