Things you may not know about Alistair Cockburn

As you probably know, Alistair Cockburn is an original signatory to the Agile Manifesto. He is also the creator of the "Heart of Agile" framework, his take on "scraping away…decorations" that have built up on top of the basic principles of agility. You probably also know that he likes coming to Australia, and we have been lucky enough to have him here several times, although unfortunately he can't be at 1st in 2018.

We thought it would be interesting to find out a few things about Alistair that are a bit less well known, in the short video (3:30min), above.

This is the first part of a series of 6 videos that will be published in the next few weeks. We hope it helps you understand why 1st Conference is structured around the Heart of Agile, give you some tips on how you can use Heart of Agile, and help you think about how you could get the most from coming to the conference.

The series will include:

  • Things you may not know about Alistair (this video)
  • 4 words to help you to enable greater agility in your organisation (link)
  • Using Heart of Agile for self-education (link)
  • How Heart of Agile can be the bridge to organisational agility. (coming on 10 Jan)
  • An exercise that can drive collaboration (15 Jan)
  • Alistair's advice on how to get the most out of 1st Conference (17 Jan)

The entire, unedited version will also be made available.

If you aren't already coming, here is where you can…

A quick summary of this video:

  • Alistair started off as a Hardware Designer, he comes from a Computer Graphics background.
  • His formative role was to create and teach a methodology for Smalltalk & C++ developers and after nearly a decade of doing this and refining his art, he was then one of the people who co-authored the Agile Manifesto.
  • After a decade traveling around helping increase its adoption, he realised that there needed to be a further simplification of some sort. This is how the Heart of Agile came about.
  • Now, Alistair lives a life with a suitcase and 2 backpacks and he travels around as what would've been called a "Bard" in the old days. He travels around and tells stories of the values and roots of ideas and shares stories about companies that he sees who are doing great things to try and encourage people to grow and adapt their own ways.
  • He's lived his whole life in different societies, countries and cultures. Over his career, Cross-cultural collaboration is his hallmark theme.

If you liked or have feedback on this story and interview, feedback helps me develop content that is better for you. Please reach out!

Ringo.Thomas@tabar.com.au or LinkedIn & Twitter