Agile Interview with Stephen Forte

Our interview with Stephen Forte is the first of our brand new series of Agile Interviews with agile influencers.

For a long time we have been searching for a format that would allow us to provide our TeamPulse blog readers with fresh, unique and different, but still agile content. The Agile Interviews would give you the opportunity to get to know the agile influencers better in both professional and non-professional context. If you have any questions to them, please submit them in the comments section below. There is an agile influencer you think we should interview? Please share them as a comment below.

Hi, Steve. Would you please introduce yourself?
A geeky New Yorker who lives in Asia.

Why @worksonmypc?
I use to outsource development work overseas and the devs would always say that a bug "worked on their machine".

What is your definition of agile?
Responding to change and focusing on the core user and problem.

Coffee or tea?
Soy Chai Latte.

Do you scrum?
Yes.

Any other addictions?
Mountain climbing.

Favorite agile principle?
Iterations.

What do you have for breakfast?
Protein shake with fruit.

How do you like the agile community on twitter vs on Google+?
Too many people saying "You are not Agile".

Do you cook?
Yes, that's why I was able to marry a women way prettier than I could normally marry.

How do you manage your groceries shopping list?
I wander up and down each aisle.

What keeps you organized? And what focused?
Evernote for tasks and stuff. Can't focus, ADD.

Please share your agile predictions for the future. Short-term. And long-term.
Long term, no brands, everyone will use the "buffet table"

What's your favorite place on earth?
The Mountains

What was Everest like?
Complete inner peace.

Most agile place/team you've seen?
A Telerik customer who I am not allowed to name. But they make famous shoes and sponsor FCB. :)

What was your first scrum like?
With a remote team, had to do the daily scrum at night their time!

Where does your passion for startups come from?
I don't know how to do anything else, I can't work for a "big" company!

Please share your favorite reads - books and/or blogs.
I read so much, almost 1 book per week. Favorite book recently was "The Logic of Life" by Tim Hartford.

Have you tried agile in any other aspects of life?
I tried to get my wife to use it at her job, but not really all that successful.

Team or individual sports?
Both. I was a swimmer and tri competitor, but also played baseball

Have you met Jamie Oliver? (if yes, does he do agile?)
I did not meet him, but was about 10 meters away from him. We are in a photo together on his Instagram feed. :)

Is it true you know the British Museum better than the Telerik Headquarters?
Only because you have the Rosetta Stone in the BM. The good news is that the office is right next door, so you can have the best of both worlds.

What is Beertopia 2013 compared to the average TechEd HK? And to DevReach?
Beertopia was even better than you could imagine. And I am a scotch guy, not a beer guy.

Where can we get updates on what you are up to?
Social media!

Where are you speaking next?
Speaking tonight (April 17th) in Hong Kong at General Assembly on Agile.

Is there something we didn't ask you, but you might want to share with us?
Do I speak Bulgarian? No.:) Glad we hired two more non-BG speaking "C"s our new CMO and CFO are also Americans!

Who influences you in the world of Agile?
Mike Cohn. Good thing we are both board members at the Scrum Alliance.

Stephen Forte is the Chief Strategy Officer of Telerik. Stephen is also a board member of the Scrum Alliance. Involved in several startups, he was the co-founder of Triton Works, which was acquired by UBM (London: UBM.L) in 2010 and was the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Corzen, Inc., which was acquired by Wanted Technologies (TXV: WAN) in 2007. Stephen also speaks regularly at industry conferences around the world. He has written several books on application and database development including Programming SQL Server 2008 (MS Press). Prior to Corzen, Stephen served as the CTO of Zagat Survey in New York City (acquired by Google in 2011) and also was co-founder of the New York-based software consulting firm The Aurora Development Group. He currently is a Microsoft MVP award recipient, Microsoft Regional Director, INETA speaker, and is the co-moderator and founder of the NYC .NET Developer User Group. Stephen is also a Certified Scrum Professional and PMP and holds an MBA from the City University of New York. An avid mountain climber, Stephen leads a trek in the Mt. Everest region every fall to raise money for charity. Stephen lives in Hong Kong with his wife.