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WHAT IS AGILEAN
Before terms like “Agile,” “Coaches,” and “Product Owners” were industry standards, in the early 2000’s, it was just thought of as Lean Thinking.
Rogue developers that practiced Lean, hidden in the back corners of cubes, simply referred to it as “Lean Software Engineering”. Unfortunately, today, many people don’t realize that Agile is nothing new. It’s rooted in Lean, and a distant cousin to Six Sigma, which is why it’s based on concepts like continuous improvement, minimizing waste and value driven delivery. After you read enough agile books and learned the various flavors of agile, there has to be a point when one circles back and distills all of that knowledge into an easily, digestible concept that can be easily shared and articulated to others. That, was the impetus for AgiLean (pronounced Agile Lean).
WHO IS "AGILE" AL SMITH, JR.
As an agile practitioner, I have personally been practicing and coaching teams on Lean Software engineering and DMAIC (Design, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) since 2004. “Officially” becoming certified as a Lean\Six Sigma Black Belt in 2010, in addition to being a Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) and Certified in Risk & Information Systems (CRISC). Collectively, all of this knowledge has been used to mentor and build high performance IT agile software teams, and more importantly, improve business
Over the years, as agile gained more industry recognition and formal job titles were developed, I also worked with PMI (Project Management Institute) to pilot and become one of their first PMI agile Certified Practitioners (PMI-ACP); going on to write one of the first PMI-ACP training books and online classes. Then, going on to assist PMI with moving their exam preparation online, by writing one of their first (white label) online exam preparation courses for their clients.
From there, in order to gain an even broader perspective of the entire agile workflow I went on to become a Certified Scrum Project Owner (CSPO) and an ICP-ACC agile Certified Coach. All of those skills and experiences were combined and allowed me to start my own agile consulting business called AgiLean (Agile + Lean).
Continuously being able to improve my agile craft, wearing all of the hats within the SDLC finding new ways to improve flow and constantly squeeze more value, out of value streams is what I love about agile. My AgiLean toolbox set is best leveraged by organizations that require assistance with anything from Agile Transformations to Product Ownership, as well as Agile Coaching on best practices and implementing Enterprise Agile strategic thinking.
And while agile is commonly only associated with IT projects, by leveraging Lean + agile thinking and embracing the mindset of continuous improvement, I’ve also used it to patent, develop, launch and manufacture several innovative fitness products (See below).
For the sake of brevity, all of this experience cannot explicitly be called out within my resume, but at this point, agile is baked into my IT expertise and been used on ALL of my IT engagements since 2004. So in addition to being an end-to-end Agile expert with numerous agile and IT professional certifications
- Sprint
- NASA
- Boeing
- GE GXS
- Blue Cross
- Accenture
- ePrise Corporation
- Sony Pictures Entertainment
- ESRI
- Port of Los Angeles
- Freddie Mac
- Union Bank of California
- Aspen Tech
- Mission Systems
- Bear Stearns
- Mass Connections
- SAS Institute, Inc.
- Fairfax Public School
- Dell
- Atpco
- TASC Inc.
- Concert
- SAIC
- Sato Travel
- Naval Surface Warfare Center
- US District Court
- CACI
- US Navy
- Raytheon
- Lockheed Martin
- Goldman Sachs
- Instinet
- Credit Suisse First Boston
- Dreyfus Corporation
- Merrill Lynch
- Radian Guaranty, Inc.
- Merck-Medco Managed Care
- Prudential Insurance
- CMP Media
- Wyeth Research
- Citibank
- NIMA