I have a great interest in the secondary benefits that a company can pursue by utilizing agile.  One of those benefits might be innovation.  On July 21, I will lead a discussion on this topic.  This blog entry is an introduction to this discussion topic. I hope to see you there. 

How do we engage the client in the daily process of delivering valuable software.  So many times we see clients who would rather not be bothered by the process of creating software.  Yet client involvement is critical.

Agile in Management (AIM) has been a valuable group to me. Over three years ago, I was invited to join this group and get involved in the discussion on how to nurture and support the agile practices as a manager.  That seemed like a great goal.  I was new to the movement, truly enjoyed the success our company was having in adopting agile practices, but struggling with the process of keeping the company moving forward.

My good friend, Mark Singleton, invited me and stated that this group of executives faced similar challenges.  He sold me on this support group of agile executives.  It didn’t hurt that he dropped the name of Alistair Cockburn.  I had seen Alistair from a distance and any opportunity to hear more from him was appealing. 

I didn’t want to attend a group that discussed the nuts and bolts of software development in the context of agile but rather discussed hard core topics of encouraging and motivating others (clients, team leaders, managers, etc.) to move forward with agile.  I wanted...