Resume: Mattias_Skarin_CV.pdf

Blog: http://blog.crisp.se/mattiasskarin

mattias.skarin(at)crisp.se
+46 733 66 88 08

The expert commander strikes only when the situation assures victory. To create such a situation is the ultimate responsibility of generalship.

 -- Sun Tzu

Q: Who are you?
M: A positive chap from northern Sweden. I got caught by the bug called software 13 years ago (and haven't regretted it since :)  After 9 years as a developer, I decided to find out what it takes to create great software. This has taken me on a journey of Agile, TDD, Scrum and Lean and of energized teamwork. Imperative for me is putting my ideas into practice.

Q: So, what are you good at?
M: Helping organisations draw value out of their Scrum and Lean initiatives. Turning it into a sharp competitive tool.

Q: Why do you get asked to come as a coach?
M: To help client find a effective way of using tools like Kanban and Scrum in their context.

Q: What are the problems you encounter?
M: Oh, it is easy to generalize here. But uncertainty (how to use a tool in different scenarios) and suboptimization is common.  It happens I encounter a change that only consider one dimension, being resisted. I help organisations find solutions that turns the change into a winning game for the participants Changing a way of work is a multi dimensionall game.

Q: What inspires you?
M: Turning around difficult situations and seeing people grow.

Q: Who do you coach?
M: The IT organization, from developer to CEO.

Q: ..seriously?
M: Well it makes sense if you acknowledge that root causes rarely are isolated to a single function. Therefore you need the combined cooperation on many levels to deal with them.

Q: ..ok.. but with who do you usually spend most of your time?

M: Main part is usually spent together with teams, project managers and first / second line managers.

Q: In your mind, what are the biggest mistakes we repeat?
M: Well, I'd highlight two things,

1. An over belief in status quo - too comfortable with what we have

2. Pursuing standardisation too far. It seems like a built in response and it does not help a product development organisation deriving value from uncertainty. In worst case we find ourselves victim to marked change instead of embracing them.

Q: You do coaching, has it returned any results?

• A game development company I coached reduced their game development cycle time from 24m to 4m. Their IT department of 80 people went from being a perceived trouble maker by business to a transparent partner in the same time.
  

• An ECM company saved a derailing 8 month project (and key client) using Kanban/Kaizen with 8 weeks left to the deadline.
  

Q: What areas do you specialize in?
M:

• Kanban and Lean
  
• Implementing continuous improvement (Kaizen)
  
  .. apart from this I also train in Scrum and TDD.
  

Q: What about technology?
M:  .Net & Windows, that's my home base. I have cheated in Java, but there are many more skilled Java developers out there than me :)

Q: Ok, rounding up. Any last minute advice?
M: I leave you with a quote from the real person Will Smith's portrayed in "The Pursuit of Happiness".

"Always move forward."