About the authors
How (Fr)Agile was formed...
Fragile was written out of sheer frustration. Jessie’s and my war cry to the world of project management is that things are just not working – not the way they’re being done. And ‘projects’ matter. As we go to print, hospitals are being built to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Vaccinations and immune therapies are under accelerated development. Supermarkets are collaborating with rivals to keep people fed.
Families are turning their dining rooms into table tennis stadiums. Big or small, all these projects desperately need doing.
The good news is that things can get done, and if they’re managed right, they can get done with very little fuss. At my house, using agile principles, we just cleaned out our loft, got the mildew out of the deck, and reseeded our lawn, all without any ceremony at all (or very much help from our late-sleeping teenager). Out in the professional world, Jessie and I have recently helped fix a national justice system, got a housing scheme refurbished, filled in a lot of city potholes, and launched a whole slew of digital transformations for corporate clients. We have about 3 decades of combined experience, and interestingly, we’ve learned that project success really only comes down to a few, small-sounding, ideas. But they’re important ideas.
This is what our book is about. In these pages are the interventions that will actually make a difference to your project. Some of what we offer is our own special sauce, cooked up from our on-the-job experience; other principles we’ve drawn from giants like Eli Goldratt and John Seddon.
But it’s our book, edited by business writer Duncan Fisher, and it’s all for you, ready to land right on your desk, for free.
I grew up on the countryside – a very loving, typical blue collar household. My father was a police-officer, my mum a saleswoman. Coming home still feels safe and comforting. Although I can count on my parents whenever, wherever, they also “forced” me into being independent from a very young age to make sure I could stand on my own feet.
Whilst this has led to many positives – I’ve always been entrepreneurial, well-informed and decisive – there were downsides. I never quite learnt “structure” and thus was a chaotic person – would often arrive late for class, start studying last minute, … Also later on at work. I’d forget meetings, work on a lot of things at the same time, wouldn’t take proper breaks to exercise and eat healthy, …
I knew something had to change.
So I started implementing certain “rules”. I now always start my day with a to do list in priority order and finish it from top to bottom. I create a structured planning for food shopping and working out every week and stick to it. These are just a few examples yet have transformed my life. If you’d ask any of my friends of the last 5 years they’d say I’m the most organized person ever (fooled them right!).
It wasn’t until I started working in Agile and met Stuart that I realized that these issues don’t only exist in individuals but also in companies.
This is what gets me out of bed in the morning. Identifying the clients’ issues and start build rules with them to make them better.
So if after reading our book, you’re as excited as I am, get in touch, we'd love to help you.
I’ve been consulting in the project environments for around 19 years.
My consulting career started with vanguard in my early thirties and very quickly I started to be asked to solved project problems. I called in support from Goldratt consulting and their method would later become the basis for Agile and Kanban.
I’ve been director of projects for a blue chip financial services business and head of agile for another. I’ve also been group managing director for a global project based business.
I live in a small village in Scotland with my wife, sons, horses and our dog.
I’ve worked with Stuart for almost 20 years.
In that time, his background in management and mine in corporate communications have evolved into one terrific synergy. Together we’ve brought value we’re proud of into the world of projects, and developed all the right publications and comms training along the way.
We’ve learned that projects simply can’t optimize without the right words, well placed.
My experience across business and industry, in sectors as diverse as pharmaceuticals, finance, IT, and education, has taught me how to make this idea practical in absolutely any setting. We’ve got a system, in other words, and it works!
Away from the office, I’m a family man, and I play the French horn, and I like to oil-paint.
About the authors
How (Fr)Agile was formed...
Fragile was written out of sheer frustration. Jessie’s and my war cry to the world of project management is that things are just not working – not the way they’re being done. And ‘projects’ matter. As we go to print, hospitals are being built to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Vaccinations and immune therapies are under accelerated development. Supermarkets are collaborating with rivals to keep people fed.
Families are turning their dining rooms into table tennis stadiums. Big or small, all these projects desperately need doing.
The good news is that things can get done, and if they’re managed right, they can get done with very little fuss. At my house, using agile principles, we just cleaned out our loft, got the mildew out of the deck, and reseeded our lawn, all without any ceremony at all (or very much help from our late-sleeping teenager). Out in the professional world, Jessie and I have recently helped fix a national justice system, got a housing scheme refurbished, filled in a lot of city potholes, and launched a whole slew of digital transformations for corporate clients. We have about 3 decades of combined experience, and interestingly, we’ve learned that project success really only comes down to a few, small-sounding, ideas. But they’re important ideas.
This is what our book is about. In these pages are the interventions that will actually make a difference to your project. Some of what we offer is our own special sauce, cooked up from our on-the-job experience; other principles we’ve drawn from giants like Eli Goldratt and John Seddon.
But it’s our book, edited by business writer Duncan Fisher, and it’s all for you, ready to land right on your desk, for free.
I grew up on the countryside – a very loving, typical blue collar household. My father was a police-officer, my mum a saleswoman. Coming home still feels safe and comforting. Although I can count on my parents whenever, wherever, they also “forced” me into being independent from a very young age to make sure I could stand on my own feet.
Whilst this has led to many positives – I’ve always been entrepreneurial, well-informed and decisive – there were downsides. I never quite learnt “structure” and thus was a chaotic person – would often arrive late for class, start studying last minute, … Also later on at work. I’d forget meetings, work on a lot of things at the same time, wouldn’t take proper breaks to exercise and eat healthy, …
I knew something had to change.
So I started implementing certain “rules”. I now always start my day with a to do list in priority order and finish it from top to bottom. I create a structured planning for food shopping and working out every week and stick to it. These are just a few examples yet have transformed my life. If you’d ask any of my friends of the last 5 years they’d say I’m the most organized person ever (fooled them right!).
It wasn’t until I started working in Agile and met Stuart that I realized that these issues don’t only exist in individuals but also in companies.
This is what gets me out of bed in the morning. Identifying the clients’ issues and start build rules with them to make them better.
So if after reading our book, you’re as excited as I am, get in touch, we'd love to help you.
I’ve been consulting in the project environments for around 19 years.
My consulting career started with vanguard in my early thirties and very quickly I started to be asked to solved project problems. I called in support from Goldratt consulting and their method would later become the basis for Agile and Kanban.
I’ve been director of projects for a blue chip financial services business and head of agile for another. I’ve also been group managing director for a global project based business.
I live in a small village in Scotland with my wife, sons, horses and our dog.
I’ve worked with Stuart for almost 20 years.
In that time, his background in management and mine in corporate communications have evolved into one terrific synergy. Together we’ve brought value we’re proud of into the world of projects, and developed all the right publications and comms training along the way.
We’ve learned that projects simply can’t optimize without the right words, well placed.
My experience across business and industry, in sectors as diverse as pharmaceuticals, finance, IT, and education, has taught me how to make this idea practical in absolutely any setting. We’ve got a system, in other words, and it works!
Away from the office, I’m a family man, and I play the French horn, and I like to oil-paint.