First Posting! Catching Up

Hello all,

This is my first blog posting so I am formatting it as a catch-up bullet list.

• Mar 3: Software Guru magazine wants me to write an article on Agile for their special issue to be published this summer. I will be writing about Agile and how it fits with standards and models, particularly with MoProSoft
  
• Feb 1~12: Back to Mexico. Followed up with some companies on deciding to adopt agile. Some of them are still enthusiastic but are yet to decide, in addition that March is the time to plan budget for the year so delays are expected. One government company is going really slow and will need a lot of effort from my side to get them to put the proposal on the right hands for approval. Also had a first meeting with a couple of small companies, both curious to learn more about agile.
  
• Jan 12~22, 2009: First business trip to Mexico. Gave a presentation on Agile to the Asociación Mexicana de Informática (AMIAC) at the National University of Mexico. There was a lot of enthusiasm from the attendants and most of their question were related to how to make Agile function with standards (ISOs) and models such as CMMI. I met with executives from 3 companies, one of them government, to present my services. Also met with Hanna Oktaba, director of ProSoft, to talk about their MoProSoft standard. The central aspect of the trip was to learn that most Mexican industries are very tightly bonded with standards and small software service companies seem to have no much choice but to abide by those rules. What I found somewhat unfortunate is that there is no much awareness of Agile and its benefits; and although there are some big Mexican companies that already do agile (most of them banks) the existence and use of agile is yet to gain momentum there. On the bright side of things some people showed interest and communication with them is ongoing. In conclusion I realized that it will take a lot of effort to get Mexico to adopt agile.