I have a history of working as a CM for several projects, but have transferred towards agile methods, lean principles and process improvements, where my real interest lies. This mix of experiences inspired me a year ago to write a paper on the subject of agile CM.

I was recently asked by the editor of Methods and Tools, to write an article of my paper. When doing some research for this new article on “Lean CM” I stumbled upon a discussion of my former paper on CM Crossroads where Brad Appleton agreed with my conclusions and defended them against some other persons who were sceptics of the agile approach to CM. I guess people might feel a bit threatened when the traditional roles are questioned.

In the new article I’m writing I have a deeper discussion concerning the lean development principles connected to configuration management. I have still come to the same conclusions. My opinion is that the CM role should be adapted to the agile ideas and lean principles and my attitude towards CM is that it is a supporting discipline that should support projects and enable them to deliver customer value quicker. I don’t think CMs should sit around in projects doing daily operations that the team could do better off themselves. The CM should instead “sweep the road” ahead by creating a CM strategy that facilitates frequent deliveries, automating tools, etc.

I have sent a first draft to the editor and I will let you know when it is publicly available.

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Actually I quit already in the beginning of June July, but for some reason management didn’t want people to know until now. Perhaps because another one of the team leaders also quit at the same time (2 out of 3) and they didn’t think people could handle it if they didn’t present a new organization at the same time.

Anyway it has been pretty annoying that they wanted to keep it a secret for so long, while I have been forced to walk around lying to people, consuming my trust. This is also the reason my blog has been paralyzed for so long.

Why did I do this?
I have been at Softhouse for more than five years and found myself in a comfort zone. I realized that I had to look outside the company to get new challenges. It has been very challenging and developing to be part of the build up of the agile and lean business areas, but I find that the direction pointed out for the rest of the business being far too unclear for me. It’s hard to put up personal goals if you don’t know the direction of the company.

What will I do now?
After 11 years and numerous assignments as a consultant in southern Sweden I have seen most of the potential customers in the area, as well as some in Germany, France and India. Anyway I have decided to leave consulting and look elsewhere. I will be working for Novo Nordisk in Denmark. This gives me enough challenges: a different country, a different language and a different business. I will be a project manager at the Continuous Improvement & Innovation Center (CIIC), where I will be leading process improvement of global business processes according to LEAN principles. It is interestingly enough not an IT related position, however I will do my best to keep it within the LEAN and agile domains, transfering Scrum and agile thoughts outside of software development.

Novo Nordisk is a Danish pharmaceutical company world leading in diabetes care. They have more than 23,000 employees in 79 countries.

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After a long period of blog silence I am back behind the keyboard again. Although my vacation wasn’t very lean or agile some really interesting things did occur that I will write about later.

Meanwhile I can tell you that the third Scandinavian SCM day will take place in Lund on August 23rd.

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