I recently accepted the position of Agile Practice Director for 10XP Solutions, Inc. (an affiliate of Systems Integration Solutions (SIS), Inc.) – a new and very exciting chapter in my life.

As always, the beginning of a new chapter is bittersweet. I really enjoyed working with the people at Apple and wish all of them continued personal and professional success. Fortunately I was able to handpick my replacement so I know they are in good hands and that they will continue on their Agile journey.

I am very excited about my new position because I will have the opportunity to create a brand new practice whose primary focus is creating great agile teams. While it is widely known that good agile teams are small, co-located, dedicated, stable and cross functional, there are very few folks in software development that actually get to work in such an environment.  The possibility of actually creating such an environment is an honor and a dream come true. Additionally, we have the chance to operate like a startup but still have the backing of a strong, staffing company with over 25 years experience. The fact that I get to work with some really incredible people at SIS is amazing. I really appreciate their warm welcome.

The world is always changing. The world of staffing needs to change as well. As more and more organizations try to become Agile, they are finding it difficult to create optimal agile teams. We can provide intact agile teams to these and also to startups who need to ramp up quickly but may find it difficult to ramp up quality teams quickly.

We call our new effort 10XP Solutions. “10X” comes from the well known adage that the best programmers are ten times more productive than the least. The “XP” alludes to Extreme Programming whose emphasis has always been on high quality code, something that is central to the value that we bring to our clients.

I have always been fortunate and I am grateful to Peter Ling (CEO of SIS) for giving me this opportunity, the people at SIS for their support as we move into new territory and, most of all, to my wife and son for allowing me to pursue my dream.