The Partners
Lean-Agile Partners consists of a small group of the most experienced Agile coaches— people who've launched dozens of successful agile teams and are thought-leaders in the Agile Software Development field.
Nancy Van Schooenderwoert, Principal Coach
Nancy Van Schooenderwoert does Agile Enterprise coaching— everything from launching new agile technical teams to advising executives on how to take Agile and Lean principles far beyond software development in their drive to deliver more customer value faster. She works with large and small companies. Nancy pioneered agile practices for embedded software development beginning in 1998. Her background in electronics and software development for avionics, factory automation, medical, and defense systems brings a unique perspective to her coaching practice.
Nancy holds a Scrum Master certification, has edited a column for the Agile Times, and served on the IEEE 1648 committee to define a standard for customers of agile teams. She has been a regular presenter at various Agile-related conferences since 2003. Her work in applying Agile methods to embedded systems has been referenced by Jim Shore and Mary Poppendieck in their books.
Currently based in Boston, USA.
Jamie Dobson
Jamie Dobson is a well-respected trouble shooter, project manager, problem solver, and software developer. He was a very early adopter of Extreme Programming and test-driven development. He went on to tailor XP in numerous ways to help clients, often very un-agile clients, to maximise their teams' utilisation.
Jamie specialises in helping teams move from an ad-hoc waterfall way of working to an iterative, agile way of working. His transformation strategies are holistic and highly flexible, often leading to improved efficiency on the first day of an engagement.
Jamie is also a very experienced, and patient, teacher and leader. Teaching others how to lead is usually listed as an important benefit of working with Dobson Coaching and Consulting.
Jamie's contribution to the larger body of software knowledge is recognised by the community via his involvement in conferences and workshops. Jamie has spoken about testing at the prestigious Workshop for Performance and Reliability, project management at SPA, Java programming at the Dutch Java User Group's J-Fall conference, and Agile Performance Testing at the Agile 2007 conference in Washington DC.
More info on Jamie can be found on his web site at: jamiedobson.co.uk
Currently based in the Midlands, UK.
Linda Cook
Linda Cook understands team dynamics like few others. Her extensive background both as a software developer and as a project manager is the perfect complement to her innate knack for figuring out what makes people tick. Linda quickly gains insight into teams and is able to help her team members do so as well.
Linda Cook has over twenty years' experience in the IT industry having held positions from developer, forms designer, data modeler, analyst, tester, to methodology lead. She has worked in a variety of industries, including financial systems, insurance, education, research, manufacturing, and IT consulting. She has mentored colleagues, established formal and informal training programs, and has established/improved the processes of numerous software development teams during her career.
Linda received her bachelors' degree from the College of Notre Dame in Business Management, with a concentration in Computer Information Systems. She is a certified Scrum Master with the designation of "Practicing", and is active in the international Scrum community. Linda Cook is a member of the Agile Alliance, and the Project Management Institute, active in the Baltimore Chapter. She is co-chair of the Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN) Maryland Chapter.
Currently based in Maryland, USA.
Adrian Mowat
Adrian Mowat is an Agile technical expert with over seven years' experience working on large-scale Data Warehousing and ETL projects across a number of sectors, including telecommunications, banking, and media. He is one of Europe's most experienced Ab Initio practitioners and a member of the elite group who delivered the very first Ab Initio developments outside America.
As co-founder of M2Consortium, Adrian has pioneered the application of Lean principles and Agile practices established in the traditional software development world to his own technical domain, and he has written extensions to FIT and implemented xUnit for ETL and Ab Initio projects.
Currently based in Scotand.
Mark Thias
Mark Thias brings a strong software engineering and architectural background to his Lean-Agile coaching practices. He's a patient coach who believes in hands-on examples to help teach teams using their own problem domain. Mark is an excellent, experienced coach and trainer at all levels of the enterprise including upper management, product owner, functional analyst, project manager, developer and tester.
Mark incorporated Scrum/XP practices beginning in early 2001 for bio-technology companies seeking to gain competitive advantage in their internal software development while also meeting FDA regulations. Mark has also successfully incorporated Lean-Agile practices into large financial institutions seeking to improve time-to-market and software quality, as well as to reduce their dependency on the offshore model. Mark brings 20 years of software engineering and 8 years of Lean-Agile Project Management and Coaching to the organization.
Currently based in Texas, USA.
Jim York
For more than 20 years as a management and IT consultant, Jim York has led, mentored, and coached individuals, teams, and organisations in the implementation of Lean and Agile concepts. As a Lean and Agile practitioner, he has performed many roles including developer, analyst, tester, project manager, and product manager. His project work includes process improvement, new product development, cost and economic analyses, transactional and batch B2B interfaces, corporate web sites, performance monitoring, asset management, accounting, and document management and imaging. He has applied Lean and Agile methodologies and practices in companies large and small in a variety of industries including financial services, government/defense, telecommunications, energy, and media. Jim has educated dozens of teams and hundreds of team members in Scrum and Lean and Agile practices.
In addition to conducting public and on-site workshops, Jim blends his expertise in Scrum, Agile Project Management, Lean Software Development, Extreme Programming, and traditional project management to deliver customized "just-in-time" training to teams. As a Certified Scrum Trainer and member of the Scrum Alliance, Jim actively contributes to the advancement of the Scrum methodology. He has a degree in Mathematics and English from the University of Richmond, USA.
Currently based in Virginia, USA.
