We want to make Agile Finland even better, who wants to join? A platform for 2014-2015

The ideas below reflect the discussions we (Maaret Pyhajärvi, Martin von Weissenberg, Vasco Duarte) have had while reflecting on our Visions for Agile Finland. We hope these ideas are discussed and developed within the Agile community in Finland, and end up in a set of actions for the Agile Finland Executive Committee 2014-2015. We also commit to present ourselves as candidates for the Agile Finland executive committee in the next Annual Fannual meeting and are open to you joining our group to be part of the next executive committee.

If you share our ideas, get in touch and join us for the Agile Finland board. If you don’t share our ideas, please join the debate! Publish your ideas, volunteer for the next Agile Finland board on your own or as part of our list. Our goal is to spark debate and ensure we will have a strong group of committed individuals to continue the work that we feel Agile Finland needs to complete.

Read our ideas below, and let us know what you think.

Community services

Agile Finland needs to take a role in the progress of software industry in Finland. One way in which we can do that is by cooperating more closely with the companies that identify themselves as Agile companies, both consulting and product/service production.

We want Agile Finland to be a platform for all members of the Finnish Agile Community, be they individuals or other organizations (for profit or not). As an example of this cooperation, we want to establish a yearly market research process financed by Agile Finland that would deliver a yearly “state of Agile in Finland report” and distribute it to the companies in the Agile community as well as to the media and individual Agile Finland members. This report can include topics such as:

• Market size for Agile contracts
• Market size for Agile software development (revenues, number of jobs, etc.)
• Key trends from the Agile market in Finland (topics of interest, business models, etc.)

The full list of topics to cover is to be decided by the group that will create the report.

Sponsorship and funding for Agile Finland

Over the past years, conferences (especially Scan Agile) have been a major funding component for Agile Finland. We want to propose some changes in this respect. We recognize that it is today unclear for Sponsors to know which events to participate in as sponsors. If you support Tampere Goes Agile does it make sense to support another major conference like Scan Agile? How about conferences that happen at similar times? Which one to choose?

We find these choices confuse sponsors and do not adequately serve our present Agile Finland members either. Therefore we propose a change in model for 2014-2015. We propose that companies interested in sponsoring Agile Finland be able to sponsor the whole year of events (several major events are held by Agile Finland every year) and be allowed to choose which ones they participate in. For example, if Company A purchases a yearly sponsorship from Agile Finland they could be features in Scan Agile, Tampere Goes Agile and local events that will happen during the year.

Alternatively, companies could still purchase sponsorship packages for specific events just like they did until now.

Additionally we want to propose a change in the Agile Finland bylaws to allow corporate membership. This membership would allow companies to have access to services such as market research, recruiting communication and other services that Agile Finland may want to develop in support of the Agile business community.

Sponsoring local events

Agile Finland wants to support local Agile communities around Finland, therefore we will commit a minimum amount of money to self-organized community events. All that is needed is a request to the board and the funding will be approved provided we stay within the agreed limit. If you have an idea to support your local community we want to help you without a long wait for either practical or financial support. We want to help local communities get more active, and our support (advertising and financial support) will make it easier.

Developing a future for the Finnish software industry

In 2014-2015 we want to start what we hope will become a trend for the future of our industry. We want to support events designed to support future professionals get familiar with what it means to work in a software organization. For that we will organize events with school-age children on topics such as what the “maker” community already supports all over the world. Creating projects that young Agilists could work on, from concept to execution. But we will also try to grow partnerships with student organizations, universities and companies to have a mentorship program started to help integrate students in the software industry easily.

Major events for 2014-2015

Events such as Turku Agile Day (which we want to support actively), Tampere Goes Agile and Scan Agile are events that attract a large audience and spreads knowledge and awareness of Agile within our community, but also helps establish strong links to other communities.

We want to continue to host and these events but also recognize that a voluntary-only approach has risks that must be tackled. We will consider how to support these events on a case-by-case basis and will work to make their organization a sustainable project that does not require heroic efforts from some of our members every year.

We recognize that each event has their own identity and we want to support that diversity.

As first actions we will:

• Reach out to the Turku Agile Day group and learn how we can further support their goals;
• Help find voluntaries to help host Tampere Goes Agile and Scan Agile;
• Work with each event to make sure they receive the support needed, including professional services for event organization, design, web-hosting, etc.

Do you want to help shape the next year for Agile Finland? Participate by sharing this blog, commenting or tweeting/blogging about the topic yourself! Be active, let's make Agile Finland even better!

Kicking up dust for the Agile Finland 2011-2012 season

A big moment for the Agile Finland community is approaching. On May 25th we’ll get together and select the new Agile Finland Board for the 2011-2012 season.

There are many reasons why it is a big moment. In my opinion it is a big point in our history as a community. Agile Finland was started when Agile was still the ghetto, now Agile is not only out of the ghetto, but it is becoming the dominant software development approach in Finland. Sure, many companies are still going old-skool with their software projects, massively outsourcing the testing function or trying to get huge changes in before releasing a single version, etc. But Agile Software Development is, unmistakably the dominant approach in software development in Finland today.

This leads to an important point for our community. We started Agile Finland as a way to spread knowledge of Agile and support the learning journey that we’ve all been through since 2000. That phase is over. Although we do need to continue to support the spreading of the knowledge about Agile to other communities (like in this example), I feel that this does not need to be our main focus anymore. So I’d like to propose a new focus, a new phase for our growing community.

Concrete proposals for the next Agile Finland Board season

I propose that the next Agile Finland board should focus on helping the community share, expand and develop new knowledge in the field of Software Development and Product Development with focus on some key areas of practice. For this I propose the following structure in the Agile Finland activities for the next year:

• Agile Finland must define what areas of focus it will have (see suggestion below) and arrange specific activities that emphasize those areas of focus. For that I propose the following areas:
  
• Programming and testing in an Agile Software Development environment. This area of focus would cover the technical development of our community in programming and testing tasks. The Software Craftsmanship movement is a good source of inspiration for the content to be shared and developed in this area, but we also need to create an atmosphere of cooperation and sharing with the excellent testing professionals we have in Finland and in the AF community. The technical area of focus is an area where there is clearly a need for a better offering in our community, and Agile Finland has the network and expertise to start that work.
  
• Project Management in an Agile Software Development environment. This area of focus would cover the Project concept, it’s applicability to different types of work and product development environments. We know that the traditional Project Management is not compatible with many Software Development environments, but we need to explore alternatives, share and expand our knowledge on what has worked in the past as well as the experiments that are going on right now. In this area of focus, I believe we must build a bridge with the already active Project Management communities(PMI, PRY). We have a lot to learn from each other.
  
• Leadership and Management. This area of focus was already in the activities started during last year (see ACLA), but we need to continue to develop those activities. Many of the challenges we face today are because the traditional leadership and management models have failed in the era of knowledge work (like software and other areas). We need to share what is being tested in the world, bring in some world-class thought leaders in this area to enlarge the pool of knowledge for managers and leaders in our local community.
  

Conclusion

By focusing on these three areas (Programming and Testing, Project Management, Leadership and Management) I am suggesting that Agile Finland should also focus on specific activities for it’s major interest groups. It is not enough to arrange one to three generic networking events during the year, we need to start taking concrete actions for the development of our community. I hope that this post contributes to a discussion around how we could do that.


Photo credit: Patrick Keogh @ flickr

On the decay of old media: Helsingin Sanomat goes back to the 1990's

I was skimming twitter this morning when I saw a link to an article/blog post in HS site about how they plan to "revolutionize" the way people interact/work with HS today.

First let me get this out of my chest: whoever was tasked with creating this project is either a complete noob in this thing we call the internet or their task was to create a good video for a concept that has no chance in hell to succeed! What a large #FAIL!

Now for the actual content. HS misses the whole internet thing completely.

1. First, they created this video which is about creating a platform that transfers their "paper" product to your screen. Really? Don't you have a little bit of imagination? Or at least look around to see what is happening! People don't want the "old" media in a new format. They want and need a new media, that is a more integral part of their life, not another format to learn!
   


2. Second, they completely ignore that in the age of the internet when the competition is just a click away the media business model has to be about producing good content first and only later about the medium to deliver it. The medium will evolve forever! (remeber sites from 1999? not so successful if launched today!) Having a concept that revolves around the way that media is organized *on the screen* is like trying to build a car by 1800's standards: you know with a 1000 bhp engine on a model T. Totally clueless if you ask me
   


3. Third, the video seems to show that they want to use all kinds of media formats in their content: videos, more photos, more ads, etc. Well, I don't see how a decreasing revenue ecosystem (print media) can really work with a future model that will exponentially increase their production costs (more video report teams, more photographers and photo editors, more expensive content handling and management systems, etc.) I mean, look at Huffingtonpost.com. They are competing for attention with the big guys with a much smaller work-force!
   


4. Fourth (and last - although I could continue for ever), they completely forget that in the age of the Internet, access to content is the commodity, what they should be focusing on is either a content-niche (opinion, creating social dialogue, etc. -- where they have no competition) or then try to create a dialogue with their customers that cannot be replicated elsewhere (like user engagement through social media, etc.). Trying to just create another "way" to access their content, which is closed, limited and will be out-dated 6 months after they spend millions implementing it is not just dumb, it should be considered neglect by WSOY board!
   

Helsingin Sanomat: please wise up and truly innovate! Look around, there's lots of people in Finland with great ideas. Take a risk, listen to them. After all Finland is one of the most advanced countries in online/mobile services. Surely we must have people in this country who can give you great ideas!

Here's the sad, sad video. Well produced, but with the wrong content...




Photo credit: fireflythegreat @ flickr