Talk:Proposed mission statement for OpenAgile

The official "Purpose of OpenAgile" is stated here: http://www.openagile.com/LearningManifesto namely "To create an environment in which people are free to express their true nature and capacities to contribute to the betterment of their organization."

The discussion at the recent Community Engagement Meeting was centered on how some people felt the Purpose of OpenAgile to be unclear. The intention behind the Value Driver is our shared desire to articulate the Purpose so that it is easily understandable by all and uses language that galvanizes people to support it.

Trying to avoid defining OpenAgile by what it is not
If we say OpenAgile is "Agile beyond software," or "not just for people working in the Software Development industry," then only the people who work in software will know what that means. We can't define OpenAgile by what it is not.

The Purpose of OpenAgile: To create an environment in which people are free to express their true nature and capacities to contribute to the betterment of their organization.
Let's start by breaking down what this statement means so we can see what might need to be clarified.

David, thanks for clarifying the question.

If you want to attract more business people, I would suggest something along the lines of ...

The Purpose of Open Agile is to promote an environment which fosters active, applied, continuous learning and strong teamwork so people can build capacities to contribute to the betterment of their organization.

Saying "people are free to express their true nature" can be interpreted many different ways and does not highlight the core benefits that Open Agile provides to the organization.

There are three participants in an Agile process: the individual, the team, and the organization. The current Purpose of OpenAgile addresses two of those: the individual and the organization, but does not directly address the team. --JoshW 18:53, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

See also: Video: The Purpose of OpenAgile and Primer on the Purpose of OpenAgile

Another Definition
When Joel BC had to describe it to someone, he opted to describe it as "A simple, but highly expandable, open framework for managing any kind of project."

Source: http://thegorillaisnamedhogarth.blogspot.com/2011/01/openagile-not-just-another-bad-gorilla.html

CamelCase
Also, personally I'm not sure if I like the CamelCase "OpenAgile" vs. "Open Agile". The Core Protocols seems slightly dated and very "techy" by using CamelCase extensively.

--JoshW 10:30, 25 December 2010 (UTC)


 * OpenAgile (camel case) is a title. "Open Agile" strikes me as a title preceded by an adjective.  To write it as OpenAgile, all one word, is a branding/marketing decision made early by the founders.  I suggest this shouldn't be changed ad-hoc - doing so may diminish the value of early marketing efforts and fracture the brand.  If, through consultative decision-making, the champions of OpenAgile choose to decouple the two words then I'd support the change but until then I'll continue to refer to is as OpenAgile.  Firefox - all one word, not camelcase - was a decision by the founders of that open source project - the community has never had the nerve to rename the project "Fire Fox". --DavidSabine 22:44, 29 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Good point. --JoshW 18:53, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

Define Target Audience
Let's take a step back and first define your target audience. In the spirit of "servant leadership", first define who you are going to serve (Audience), then find how to best serve them (Mission).

I took a look at the Scrum Alliance website after sending this email and (interestingly) the three questions highlighted on their front page are:
 * What is Scrum?
 * Who uses Scrum?
 * How can I start?

For "Who uses Scrum?" they highlight uses beyond Software ("churches, architects, manufacturing, + any industry you can think of"), and appears to be targeting mid-level managers and above in their recent site redesign. Scrum.org seems more targeted towards existing Scrum Practitioners who want to improve their skills ("Read", "Attend", "Assess" being the main button on the first page of the website).

I think that in the past few years, some advanced Scrum (and other Agile) practitioners have been trying to: (A) stretch beyond software to other industries, and then (B) to expand to the Enterprise level -- i.e. how to run your whole business using Scrum or Agile (I heard somewhere that Borland tried to do this at one point, with difficulty).

My understanding is that Mishkin found that Scrum was not enough to run his own business, and that was one of the core reasons for creating "Agile Work", which eventually became "OpenAgile" (after he decided to make it open source). Also, it was quickly applied outside of Software Development by Garry Berteig and others, so broad applicability is part of the "core design" of the OpenAgile learning system, whereas it feels like Scrum and some other Agile Methodologies need to be "bent and redesigned" in order to get them to apply outside of Software or Product Development.

Agile has become relatively mainstream in Software development, but is still considered "novel" and "a little strange" by people outside of software development (i.e. in other industries in which Agile is still Crossing the Chasm). My gut feeling is that "Agile" has reached enough critical mass in the public that it is just starting to "jump" beyond Software, similar to how Lean Manufacturing influenced and has become influenced by Agile. My prediction is that some of the Agile principles and practices will become incorporated into the "Team Empowerment" movements that were becoming popular in Silicon Valley when I worked there in the 1990's.

I think OpenAgile could position itself in those broad niches (of empowering teams and also adoption of Agile beyond software project management), if those are two of its Goals. However, a Goal Statement might be a more appropriate place than as a Mission Statement. A Mission Statement is about why the organization exists, not just who the organization serves.

--JoshW 25 December 2010 (UTC)

Recently reading Radical Management book by Steven Denning, early Knowledge Management proponent at the World Bank and "corporate springboard storytelling" advocate. It looks like Agile is gaining wider acceptance and adoption in non-software businesses -- a few early adopters and visionaries in the business field as well innovators (and so-called "techies") in the Technology adoption lifecycle. I'd estimate Agile in Software Development is in the "early majority" phase.

--JoshW 28 March 2011 (UTC)