Quick Guidance

If continuous improvement has stalled, or team results aren’t where you’d like them, we can help you get traction. We’ll assess various aspects of your product development and culture, such as the teams’ current methods and modes of work (collaboration, cooperation, solo ownership); management practices; agility across the value stream; IT-business interactions; leadership approaches; technical debt and engineering practices. We’ll recommend a practical roadmap toward your desired goal, identify challenges, and discuss mitigation strategies. We’re quick with this service; we won’t hang around for weeks, or tie up your people’s time in long meetings.

“We asked Gil to help us figure out how our talented, passionate team could become a cohesive unit. He only spent two days with us, but people were blown away by how spot-on his observations were, and how he made people very comfortable discussing even the most uncomfortable topics. Using his findings and recommendations, we are now working collaboratively on putting together a roadmap to becoming a better, more effective Agile team. This engagement was well worth the investment!” — Andrei Cornienco, VP Software Engineering & Infrastructure, Pethealth

Are you leading a non-software group, and finding the promise of Agile appealing? Not sure what’s a good way to adopt it?

While Agile is applicable to many pursuits outside of software (or technology as a whole), its implementation may look nothing like it often does in software. We’ve had clients who got very good with Agile without needing any of the popular mechanics such as boards, stories, sprints, and standups. In fact, popular frameworks (such as Scrum) may not be suitable for you. You need an implementation that works in your specific context.

Call on us, and we’ll take your group through the right conversations, guide and advise at critical junctures, and help you design a practical implementation that sticks.

If you’d like to be Agile with your next major undertaking but the situation is complicated, we’ll help you customize Agile to your context. We’ll work with the key players on alignment around values, constraints, and assumptions. We’ll guide the design of a suitable workflow, effective team structure, and good practices. And we’ll help you facilitate a successful kick-off to make all of that real.

If your executives want candid, realistic, and unbiased responses to their concerns, look no further. In this 2-3 hour session with your senior leadership, we’ll establish a shared, accurate understanding of the Agile paradigm; express the needs, expectations, pitfalls, and implications of an Agile transformation; and discuss workable strategies and tactics for leading the change.

Important: We are not affiliated with any large consulting group or certification scheme, so when we say unbiased, we mean unbiased.

If a key milestone of a large initiative is coming up, consider holding a plenary workshop before starting work on the next phase. The purpose may be to draw lessons from the last few months, to improve on some dimension of work, or to consider deep changes for the next few months.

Critical to this event is to get all the participants — not just management — to do the thinking, collaborating, and deciding. We’ve facilitated many such events, and even though they’re short (rarely longer than a day), they’ve all resulted in visible increases in engagement, satisfaction, and performance. If you want greater self-organization and empowerment, such an event is the best vehicle for your intent.

We will collaborate with you on planning a successful workshop: purpose, agenda, invitation, deliverables, process, etc. And if you prefer, we will facilitate it for you (such events must be led by experienced facilitators.)

If your organization is adopting Agile unassisted and you’re hitting a snag, wanting a sounding board, or looking for independent advice, contact us. Spend a half-hour, one-hour, or even half a day with Gil Broza on the phone and get the answers you need.