As an MSc graduate in computer science, I began my career as a programmer. Very quickly my interest in taking initiative and working beyond my assigned tasks, as well as my ability to rapidly assimilate information led me to become more involved in many other aspects of software development, including but not limited to analysis and design, both technical and graphical. Indeed, I thrive on challenges. Consequently, I prefer to engage heavily on each project I’m involved with and am typically given a high level of responsibility on any team or in any organization. Over the course of my career, I have moved from working in the area of software development to focus on the improvement of the business itself, including in the areas far outside of the actual software development process. I found that my experience in agile techniques, human interactions in teams and between a project's stakeholders was very useful for my work in process improvement in general.
The values from the Agile Manifesto don’t seem to say much about the craft of software engineering. In fact, they don’t say anything about engineering at all. However, digging a little bit deeper, one quickly realizes that the benefits of Agile methods and practices cannot be realized with low quality software. Agile depends on engineering excellence.
