Interview with Carlton Nettleton
By Jeena / Filed under Agile, Interview, Scrum, WORK is GOOD / June 25th, 2012
This week in our series of interviews, let’s meet Carlton Nettleton, a Scrum and Agile software development expert based in San Diego.
As President of Look Forward Consulting, Carlton shares his ten years of practical Agile experience consulting and mentoring teams on how to increase quality, build high- performing teams and improve performance using Scrum. Carlton is a Certified Scrum Trainer® and has been practicing Scrum since 2005. He has coached teams in organizations from small start-ups to FDA regulated companies.
Click here to read all the interviews with Agile trainers and experts.
Carlton speaks to us about his experiences with Agile and Scrum, his views on certified trainings, and much more.
About ‘being Agile’ …
To me, Agile is a state-of-mind and way of thinking. My background prior to software was in science, so I find the Agile idea of devising a hypothesis for change, creating an experiment to prove (or disprove) your hypothesis and checking the results very appealing.
About being introduced to Agile and Scrum…
I was first introduced to the world of Agile by a colleague who lent me Kent Beck’s book, Extreme Programming Explained – 1st Edition (aka the “white” book). I was very new to software development and Kent’s ideas of having automated tests that you could run whenever you wanted appealed to the scientist in me. I first learned about Scrum via the Internet and attended a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) course taught by Ken Schwaber in 2005. I was hooked on Scrum ever since.
Spreading awareness about Agile and Scrum…
I formed Agile San Diego ten years ago to promote the ideas of Agile and Scrum in San Diego County. I have been speaking regularly at conferences and usergroups for nearly eight years on the topic of Agile and Scrum. I have written a short book on Scrum, Fourteen Observations of Good Scrum Practice, that you can buy on amazon.com or download from my website. The book has been translated into Spanish.
About feedback from attendees of your class…
Most people are expecting a really dull class where I talk at them for two days. In the first moments of the class, I turn their perceptions around by engaging them in an interactive learning experience that uses Scrum to teach Scrum. My main goal in any course is to engage every learner, turn them into active participants and leverage their personal and professional experience to amplify their understanding of the material I am sharing with them. Often I hear from many learners that my course was the best learning experience in their career. That is cool.
About certified trainings…
Many people attending certified classes are looking for a certification to advance their careers and/or improve their worth in the job market. Other people are using the certified classes to ensure a certain level of quality with a course. I would say about 50% of the people come to certified classes just for the certification, but they leave with a new perspective on Scrum.
What next, after becoming a CSM or CSPO?
Get some experience! As I explain to all the participants in my courses, the best way to learn about these ideas is to put them to work. The more opportunities you have to try out ideas and see the results, the more powerful your understanding of Scrum will become. The next thing I suggest to the learners is to do some reading. There is so much we cannot cover in a two-day course that it is the responsibility of each learner to continue their education through self-study.
The best thing about Agile is…
That you do not have to know everything up-front and be omniscient! Agile allows you to iterate on a solution and learn as you go. I also believe the Agile movement has allowed us to humanize the workplace, to talk about our passions, what types of things we motivate us and ultimately make the workplace more meaningful for the people who do the work.
About drawbacks to Agile…
I consider this a strength, not a drawback, that Agile relies on the people to succeed. Without motivated and inspired people, Agile will not succeed. However, you can’t succeed with any process, framework or methodology without talented and motivated people.
About implementing Agile and Scrum in non-IT teams…
I believe it is possible to apply the values and principles of Scrum outside of the software world since they are what define Scrum. In my opinion, the challenges lie when applying the practices of Scrum outside of software development. In some domains, the practices of Scrum may not make much sense. One needs to be very thoughtful when using these practices outside the domain where they were created. We need to consider what are the essential values and principles the practice was trying to support and perhaps create new practices more appropriate for the domain.
About working with Conscires…
I have been partnering with Conscires since the end of 2010. I have really enjoyed working with the Conscires team. The quality of the people who work at Conscires is very high and I have had some very intellectually stimulating conversations with all the trainers and consultants at Conscires.
Thanks, Carlton!
Contact Carlton:
Email: carlton@lookforwardconsulting.com
Twitter: @carlton858
Web: www.lookforwardconsulting.com
LinkedIn: Carlton Nettleton
Click here for Carlton’s trainings with Conscires.
Click here to read all the interviews.
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