Hi Folks,

The 20th Anniversary of the Agile Manifesto stirred up a lot of reminiscing in our community last month.

While it might inspire nostalgia, the Manifesto isn’t some historical document that we regard as an object of curiosity. Quite the contrary. At Scaled Agile, much of our Lean-Agile DNA can be attributed to the Manifesto, and its values and principles—relevant as ever—continue to directly impact SAFe’s evolving approach to development.

I joined the celebration by giving a presentation to the London SAFe Meetup group (which also includes Nurnberg, Montreal, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Ottawa, Pittsburg, Boston, Austria and Wiesbaden) as part of their participation in the Agile20 Reflect Festival.

In addition to sharing my thoughts on the Manifesto and how it relates to the Framework today and in the future, I look back at some of my earlier career experiences and lessons learned—starting with degrees in aerospace and biomedical engineering—all eventually leading to SAFe. You’ll have to watch the video to find out how the Indiana Jones theme park ride and my wife calling me an idiot factored into the journey.

Many thanks to our good friends and Darren Wilmshurst and Etienne Laverdière for organizing the event, and to the 1,000+ agile enthusiasts who joined in. Hope you enjoy the presentation.

Stay SAFe,
—Dean