Blog zero: This is an unfinished draft that I am posting. The notes below are rough. Please enjoy them as they are.

It seems like everywhere I turn, the word Agile is being thrown around. It’s commonplace in the software world, it’s mentioned in the newspaper, it’s even been discussed at TED as a family management technique of all things.

On one level, this is quite the achievement. The Agile Manifesto was written 12 years ago, which is a relatively short time ago.

On another level, it’s perhaps a reflection that Agile has reached mainsteam adoption and will eventually become as commonplace as software developers needing email skills. And it’s now Capital-A Agile, not just agile.

However, what really gets me is when I hear the tag of agile being added to job titles as some sort of extra level of experience. But actually, what you’re looking for is not an Agile team member, you’re looking for an effective team member. Someone who works well with other team members, who values their collaboration over policies & procedures, who cares about successful software delivery in the most effective way. Someone who inherently believes in improving the way they, and every team member, works.

You’re not hiring an Agile Developer, you’re hiring an effective Developer.

You’re not hiring an Agile PM, you’re hiring an effective PM.

You’re not hiring an Agile QA, you’re hiring an effective QA.

Don’t hire someone because they happened to be on an agile team, hire them because they helped a team. Any team. Hire them because they were effective, not because they added agile to their resume. Hire them because they made a great team into an amazing team.