Nitin Khanna

Nitin Khanna --

As a child, I wanted a gaming system. Instead, my Father decided to get me a computer system. He describes me as playing the piano on the keyboard thereafter. The BBC Micro is probably a machine not a lot of folks are familiar with. The interaction with computer systems and curiosity in technology naturally led me to be a bit of a techie. I have been (formally) working in IT since 2001. My background has been in programming, project management, business analysis, information architecture and human interaction.

Today, I enjoy helping people adopt agile practices, with a focus on Scrum. Once established, I help sustain the initiative (transformation).

I coach, mentor, teach, facilitate and truly know the difference amongst these areas.

I also take an objective stance and suggest where Scrum is not as suitable and there could be other practices to consider (E.g. Kanban, XP, etc.)

Initially, I worked with single Teams that grew and at the Program level. I have helped scale with a "home-grown" organic approach and am also in a position to assess and advise when different scaling models are in front of the Enterprise. Teams I have worked with are masters at their craft, in different time zones, cultures and creativity.

Challenges -- It took me 1.5 years to navigate and convince people to go from a 2-week to a 1-week Sprint. Assumptions and talk were shattered and we saw something tangible which was an eye-opener to all.

It took me a year before I was invited to speak at an annual "PM" day at an organization, where I was an hourly IT Contractor. It took another year before I heard people tell me that they decided to pick some element of Scrum, in another department. After leaving this Organization, years later, I bumped into someone at the SA FL 2016 conference -- he appreciated the talks and his Team had been exploring Scrum. Remember -- the seeds you plated years ago may blossom later.

Have patience, keep the faith and remember that the headache may be because you're banging your head against the same wall.

Community participation -- I have been hosting agile meetups and facilitating "meet & greets" / lean coffees since 2013. This is ongoing in NJ, USA.

I strongly appreciate continued education and formal training. There is also an opportunity to network with peers, hear each others stories and keep up with what is happening in the industry. All my training, listed below, have had no corporate sponsorship and on my own expense away from the corporate world and time from family.

Professional Coaching: ORSC Series (Fundamentals, Intelligence, Geography, Path, System Integration)
Professional Coaching: Coach Training Institute (CTI) - Fundamentals course; CTI Leadership
Professional Coaching Affiliation: International Coach Federation (ICF) Member

Agile Coaching: ICAgile Certified Professional - Agile Coaching/Team Facilitation (ICP-ACC/TF).

StrengthsFinder 2.0: Connectedness, Harmony, Positivity, Intellection, Learner, Empathy.

Scaling Scrum: Certified LeSS Practitioner (CLP) with Craig Larman, SPS ("Plank Owner") with Ken Schwaber, SAFe Program Consultant (SPC), S@S with Dr. Jeff Sutherland and Ian Spence.

Scrum Professional: CSP-SM CSP-PO (Also former PSE via Scrum.Org)

Product Owner: CSPO, PSPO (III)

Scrum Master: CSM, PSM (III)

Developer: PSD I

UX: PSU

PMI: PMI-ACP

Still reading? I'm married to a psychologist and I think she's part-psychic! I get off the sofa and she says -- "you're going to go make a cup of tea, right now, aren't you?"