Nancy Van SchooenderwoertCertify Nancy Van Schooenderwoert

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Certifications Received

Adrian Mowat certifies that Nancy Van Schooenderwoert is, at a minimum, qualified as a master, capable of innovating in the skill helping organisations become more Agile through the practical application of Lean thinking, based on this evidence:

Nancy introduced me to Agile when she joined a process-heavy company I was working for at the time as their first Agile coach. She quickly established a pilot Agile team (which I was part of) that delivered reliable high-quality software in much shorter time frames than the client was used to. What was amazing about her approach was that she did it in such a way that we delivered all the usual process documentation so we achieved 100% on the internal process-conformance scoring system. There was very little resistance - even from departments that had previously been a bit thorny!

From that solid start, she worked tirelessly with managers, customers and techies to show how the team could get even better, show how the Agile team could fit into the existing organisation, how to start new teams and move to a more Lean system of work. I always knew she was pulling for the team when she was out in the wider community, and I am sure the managers were sure she was pulling for them when she was working with the teams. There's no ambiguity there - she is a master applying her deep knowledge and experience of Agile development to finding effective solutions that help everyone involved "take that next step".

Richie Moyle certifies that Nancy Van Schooenderwoert is, at a minimum, qualified as a master, capable of innovating in the skill Agile Coach, based on this evidence:

Nancy intrtoduced me to Agile Methodologies as an alternative to the Waterfall methods I had practiced for years and acknowledged to be flawed. After some scepticism, I soon realised that Nancy's teaching, in particular, her methods of teaching, was a very valid method for delivering projects in a much more efficient manner.
Nancy is an expert in her chosen path and would provide considerable benefit to any organisation, the level of which, has to be seen to be believed.

Linda Cook certifies that Nancy Van Schooenderwoert is, at a minimum, qualified as a master, capable of innovating in the skill Agile Coach, based on this evidence:

Nancy has helped several organizations launch their transformation to Agile Software Development. She has guided many individuals to become capable Scrum Masters and worked with them and their teams to deliver on their committments.

When it comes to all things Agile, she gets it and she knows how to pass the skills on to others. I've personally witnessed her skills as a speaker and facilitator. We have collaborated on client's needs as they transform their teams using Agile principles and practices.

Callum Elliott certifies that Nancy Van Schooenderwoert is, at a minimum, qualified as a master, capable of innovating in the skill Agile Coach, based on this evidence:

Nancy pioneered agile practices at a large waterfall based organisation I worked as a development lead in. I was a member of one of the first teams that she coached and we were producing quality software in record time thanks to her guiding hand.

I was elected as the coach for that team and she supported and steered me at every opportunity in basic and advanced agile practices. Even when it seemed that, due to a large agile project failure, agile was not going to work in the orgnaisation she still pushed through the use of certain technical practices (TDD and Continuous Integration) to ensure high software quality.

Certifications Given

Nancy Van Schooenderwoert certifies that Ward Cunningham is, at a minimum, qualified as a master, capable of innovating in the skill concepts and tools for agile software development, based on this evidence:

his invention of wiki and FIT (for unit tests), as well as his insights and help offered in how to maintain the discipline of TDD, in conference sessions I attended on a few occasions. I have interviewed Ward a couple times for articles I wrote, and was impressed by the story of how he and Kent originated the ideas that later became XP through his early work testing microprocessors. Ward was encouraging when I discussed my early agile software metrics, and he knew of others doing similar work - very helpful to me.

Nancy Van Schooenderwoert certifies that Adrian Mowat is, at a minimum, qualified as a master, capable of innovating in the skill TDD tools for ETL (Extract Transform Load) software development, based on this evidence:

Adrian was a member of a software team that I coached for 10 months. During that time he devoured all the agile reading I could recommend, and started to wrestle with the problem of how to do proper TDD with the graphical ETL language the team used. There were no existing TDD frameworks for that. He and another team member constructed an interim script-based TDD framework that made the difference for the project being completed on time. Even other waterfall teams started adopting the technique.

Then he went on and set himself the task of finding a way to get FIT-type testing into place for ETL code. (The script-based way had been a step forward but was awkward.) After he left that work place he continued to refine his ideas and produced Fit4Data. This is true leading-edge innovation. ETL software is an area of database work that many people had said just isn't appropriate for Agile ideas. Not so! Adrian is becoming quite a thought leader in this area.

Nancy Van Schooenderwoert certifies that Clarke Ching is, at a minimum, qualified to teach others the skill conflict resolution, based on this evidence:

I attended Clarke's presentation on this topic for Agile Yorkshire and it is clear he has tested the ideas he presented by using them to solve many real issues on the teams he coaches. I've known Clarke for several years and read many of his articles and postings to the agile groups he belongs to in the UK. He's always got very insightful advice and is generous in helping anyone who asks. Clarke is a valuable member of the local agile community.

Nancy Van Schooenderwoert certifies that Richie Moyle is, at a minimum, qualified to teach others the skill how to be a well functioning agile team, based on this evidence:

Richie was a member of an agile team that I coached for about 9 - 10 months. At first Richie was skeptical that my description of agile technical practices could be applied to his ETL database work. The reason was that the language is not object oriented at all. But he kept an open mind and gave new ideas an honest try. As he saw the techniques beginning to make the team's life easier, he became quite enthusiastic. He did a lot to teach the techniques to others, and when he moved on to another company he worked to get agile started there. Richie is well on his way to being a top agile coach. He's certainly got bags of enthusiasm, in proper Kiwi style!

Nancy Van Schooenderwoert certifies that Callum Elliott is, at a minimum, qualified to help others in the use of the skill Agile Software Development, by Coaching their team, based on this evidence:

Callum has gone through a rigorous in-house agile coach training program that called for a minimum 3 months experience coaching a team, guidance of a Mentor Coach, and verification by an Observer Coach. (Mentor and Observer being experienced agile coaches.) I was the Mentor Coach for Callum as he went through the traineeship period. I recommended him for the company's internal certification, and was present later on as he coached his own new team.

Callum has coached for a period of 18 months now where I have been able to directly observe his handling of a wide variety of difficult challenges. He has used good judgement, and has grown in his ability to help others (Product Owner, Team members) to handle their roles better. The most important aspects of agile coaching can only be learned by doing, and Callum has demonstrated that he has "the right stuff".

Nancy Van Schooenderwoert certifies that Ben Morgan is, at a minimum, qualified to help others in the use of the skill Agile Software Development practices, based on this evidence:

Ben was a developer on an agile team that I coached for 3 months, and then went on to another agile team that I coached for several more months. Ben was selected to be trained as an agile coach and he carried out the role very well for some weeks, but he was transferred to a non-agile team, preventing him from completing the company's internal coach certification programme.

Ben stepped up to a role in service to a group of agile software teams when the facilities people needed someone to help them design new office layouts conducive to agile teams. The teams selected him and he worked with the office designers over a period of about 6 months to roll out new seating and whiteboard spaces.

Ben's depth and variety of experience on agile teams is a real asset. He is patient and articulate - qualities that will serve him well as an agile team member, coach, or manager. He's well able to be both a do-er and a teacher of agile ideas.

Nancy Van Schooenderwoert certifies that Linda Cook is, at a minimum, qualified as a master, capable of innovating in the skill Agile Coaching, based on this evidence:

I have been familiar with Linda's work for over 2 years, having coached a set of teams that she helped to get started. I've also visited a client site where she is coaching and met her teams. Linda has a good sense of when to let teams figure things out for themselves, and when to step up and be more pro-active. This is a balance that's difficult to get right. Linda is an excellent observer and listener, able to quickly understand where people are coming from. She can judge the dynamic within teams, as well as between teams and the rest of the organization - critical abilities for coaching agile teams and organizational change.

Nancy Van Schooenderwoert certifies that Carl Jansen is, at a minimum, qualified to use, when supported by others, the skill Agile Project Management, based on this evidence:

Carl has completed a rigorous in-house agile coach training program that called for a minimum 3 months experience coaching a team, guidance of a Mentor Coach, and verification by an Observer Coach. (Mentor and Observer being experienced agile coaches.) I was the Mentor Coach for Carl over a 7 month period. My role was to provide training to launch his agile team for a demanding financial services project, and provide ongoing coaching to the team and to managers.

Carl is very good at shielding agile teams from interference while finding ways to encourage collaboration and learning for everyone on the team. His team had to do an infrastructure upgrade to a system that was extremely hard to test because it is the nerve center for a key part of the company's financial services. This is an unusually difficult project for anyone to tackle as their initial agile coaching job, but Carl has handled it well. Everyone involved agrees it could not have succeeded as a waterfall project, yet the team continues to make steady progress using agile iterations.