Last week still seems like a dream to me.  It started off with two days of project kickoff meetings with a new client who is completely interested in doing their project in an agile manner.  Next, I spent two days in Orlando, Florida at the Agile Development Practices Conference.  Not only did I get to interact with the major thought leaders in the agile community, but our team's agile adoption and our switch to a new organization was completely validated by the things we heard at this conference.  By Thursday night, I didn't think the week could get much better.  But it did...

Our new company is based out of Orlando, so we paid a visit and sat in on an offsite management meeting.  It was an offsite, but like none I had been to before.  Everyone was very focussed but relaxed at the same time.  The information presented was relevant and inspiring.  You could feel the team spirit in the air.  Fortunately, I was given a slot on the agenda to deliver a brief presentation about agile practices and corporate cultures that support agile adoption.  The "brief" presentation ended up lasting almost 1 1/2 hours because of the high interest level and numerous questions and discussions the presentation elicited.  The entire management team just instinctively got it.  They immediately grasped the significance of agile practices beyond just software development and want to implement company wide agile practices.  They are so committed to the agile concept that they are considering changing the company tagline to DTS: Agile Solutions.  How cool is that?

To be completely honest, our entire team went through quite a stressful period over the past two months as we were leaving our old company.  It was a long haul, and we had to keep our spirits up and looking toward the future with our new organization. But last week made it all seem trivial.  Although it seemed like I was dreaming in agile for the past five days, I think I'll wake up Monday morning to find that we really are in a new home that truly wants us all  to succeed ...and to do it with agility.