Jörg Ihlefeld

My name is Joerg Ihlefeld. I have been working with IT for 20 years in various positions and with various techniques. I started my work at IBM as an system engineer for the former AS/400 system in 1990. After two years I changed to the service department of IBM and joined large service projects in public areas. In such projects I got a lot experience in managing projects. I have experience from project management, test management, quality management.
I worked as a project manager in large system-integration projects in different industries. The main focus for me is to control projects in time and on budget under usage of a clear project management method an clearly defined processes. Since 2012 I have got a lot experience in processing agile projects.

In 2012 I started with my first agile project. As a project manager I decided to implement an agile approach. The first agile team at customer site was built. I changed my role to an agile coach. It was very important to take care the interfaces between the agile team and the non agile organization of the customer. The challenge belongs to the establishment of the agile development process in the team and the organization (as part of a public company), the team organization itself, and the training of the project members along the ongoing project.

In 2012 I have got the Certified Scrum Master (CSM).

In 2013 I started to scale the agile approach in one part of the development department of the customer. Three teams and a very successful and accepted Product Owner of the customer deliver monthly a piece of software.

In 2014 I started together with the customer an agile transition of the rest of the department. Today 10 teams working as self-organized teams together in an scaled approach. Together with all supporting functions and the Product Owner organization the whole department consists of about 200 people.

My role today is the same role as at the beginning. I’m a project manager. But my role changed more to a servant leader. Today I’m responsible for the long term planning, the vision. I take care that the teams are working closely together. I try to find out and solve the impediments that hinder the teams in being successful. I support the teams in strengthen their skills in working in a cross functional team. For the teams I act as an agile coach, supporting in solving conflicts within the teams.

Additionally I act as a Chief Scrum Master for the Scrum Master team. That includes consulting, educating, challenging the team members. My goal is to set up an agile community of practice of Scrum Masters with a clear vision, mission and motivation. Our vision: “Anybody in the company must be keen to be a member of the agile teams of our IT department”

Take it, Leave it, Change it. I believe in the agile values. Command and Control was yesterday. The agile approach is one of the encouraging approaches in dealing with complexity and uncertainty.