Scrum Under Siege was created out of many conversations by Doug and Jack over a few cocktails. These two individuals have been practicing Agile for several years exclusively at Fortune 500 corporations. The corporations they have been at and are still mid cycle in their journey to fully mature Agile shops. Large corporations have certain characteristics and rules that smaller companies don’t have to face on a regular basis. The goal for most corporations is to get the employees to be practicing Agile at a high level. So moving to Agile becomes a multi year journey for many corporations. Our goal of this podcast is to focus on helping you leave theory at the door and help you navigate things that will inevitably come up. Just as in life, Agile teams have to make some concessions in order to survive the “installation” years. Now we aren’t telling you that you should always comprise, but we can give you our own experiences on when to compromise and when to stand your ground. You can still have a lot success at where you work, but just remember change is hard and it will take time to get to where you want to be. Be a catalyst and change that you want to see. Scrum Under Siege is here to help you 100 percent of the way.

Doug Jarnot
Hailing from the frozen tundra of Minnesota, Doug has always been one of those people who has advocated for data and efficiency. Combine this with his love of Finance and it was no suprise he found a place at many Fortune 500 companies. Although he didn’t start out practicing Agile he did manage to learn about it early on. His first foray into the topic was the day he picked up a book at a book store, Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise (Agile Software Development Series), and the rest was history. He has background in being a Business Analyst and Scrum Master, having had the opportunity to see Agile applied in several different areas of business. He will tell you that no situation is hopeless and all it takes is: time, hard work and grit.

Jack Kelly
Minnesota born and bred, Jack had many interests growing up but none of them had anything to do with a career. After four mediocre years in college, he ended up in sales selling lawn care and carpet cleaning services. A good friend helped him land a real sales job in a giant corporation. Within this corporation, he was able to move on to Tech Support, and a few QA positions. While in QA he was trained in Scrum by David Hussman (The Dude). After being on some real good scrum teams he decided he wanted to spread the word and became a Scrum Master. If you ask him, he will tell you life has been good to him and credits his success for taking pride in his work as well as being in the right place at the right time. He still lives in Minnesota with his wife. He has no pets.