Agile Alliance Announces New Officers And Board Members For 2013-2014

-- Leading Agile organization adds diverse new board member to address increasing demand for Agile knowledge and best practices around the world

PORTLAND, Oregon, Oct. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Agile Alliance, (www.agilealliance.org) a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the advancement of Agile software development principles and practices, today announced the addition of a new board member and officers for the coming year. Juan Banda from Bolivia, was elected as a new Agile Alliance board member. Existing board members now serving as officers include Rebecca Parsons from ThoughtWorks, Ola Ellnestam from Agical, and Linda Cook from PayPal.

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"The latest Agile Alliance board is comprised of some of the world's foremost experts in software development, and each is poised to meet our organization's goal to make the software industry more productive, humane and sustainable on an international stage," said Phil Brock, managing director of Agile Alliance. "As we look ahead to the next year we will continue our work to extend the benefits of Agile practices to more organizations and individuals that are passionate about improving the productivity and efficiency of software development and delivery."

To help guide the organization's growth, the Agile Alliance membership elected one new member to its board of directors, along with three members to leadership positions, including:

• Juan Banda, Agile Alliance Board Member – Banda is an Agile developer, project manager, professor, coach, and trainer living in Bolivia. His background is in outsourcing and currently he works in the oil industry.  This background has helped to connect him with professionals from different disciplines and countries while working effectively in distributed teams.  Mr. Banda will also serve on the nominations committee during the board year.
• Rebecca Parsons, Chair of the Agile Alliance Board – Parsons is CTO of ThoughtWorks. She has more than 20 years' application development experience, in industries ranging from telecommunications to emergent internet services. Parsons has published in both language and artificial intelligence publications, served on numerous program committees, and reviews for several journals. She has extensive experience leading in the creation of large-scale distributed object applications and the integration of disparate systems.
• Ola Ellnestam, Secretary of the Agile Alliance Board – Ellnestam became engaged in the Agile community in 2000 after reading Extreme Programming Explained. Fueled with this information, he began his Agile journey which later led him to start a company specializing in XP and Scrum. In 2005, Ellnestam helped started Agical, one of Sweden's most prominent Agile coaching companies. As an expert in software development, he coaches both developers and leaders to learn Agile practices and methods. He also is one of the driving forces behind 'Agile Sweden', Sweden's biggest Agile network. In addition, Ellnestam will be the continuing director of the Agile Alliance Conference Sponsorship Program.
• Linda Cook, Treasurer of the Agile Alliance Board - Cook is a well-known Agilist, and board member of both the Agile Alliance and the Agile Leadership Network. Her primary areas of focus include: servant leadership, mentorship, types of individuals appropriate for the profession, and the differences between being an external coach versus being an internal employee in the coach role. Cook has more than 20 years' experience in the IT industry, having held positions from developer, forms designer, data modeler, analyst, tester and methodology lead. She has worked in a variety of industries, including financial systems, insurance, education, research, manufacturing and IT consulting.

Returning members of the 2013-2014 board include:  Samuel Crescencio (Brazil), Shane Hastie (New Zealand), Pat Reed (USA), Jim Newkirk (USA), and Declan Whelan (Canada).  Phil Brock (USA) continues to serve as managing director.

Agile Alliance continues to increase its membership each year in line with the growing interest and adoption of Agile processes for software development. One key indicator of the increasing adoption of Agile practices is the continuing demand for Agile knowledge by enterprises looking to reap the benefits of the discipline. Agile Alliance helps meet this demand by publishing content, conducting regional and international educational events and by hosting the industry's foremost event, the North American Agile Conference, which brings together development experts from around the globe.

The Agile2014 Conference is scheduled for July 28 – August 1, 2014 in Orlando, Florida. Agile2014 will continue as the leading international conference on Agile methods in software development, bringing together many disciplines in the fields of information systems and software development to foster the exchange of fresh ideas and best practices.

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About Agile Alliance
Agile Alliance is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the concepts of Agile software development, as outlined in the (http://www.agilemanifesto.org/). With nearly 6,000 members located around the globe, Agile Alliance is driven by the principles of Agile methodologies and the value delivered to developers, organizations and end users. Agile Alliance organizes the annual Agile Conference, the industry's leading event that attracts practitioners, academia, business and vendor-partner community members from around the globe. The Agile2014 Conference is scheduled for July 28 – August 1 in Orlando, Florida. For more information about the organization, please visit (http://www.agilealliance.org/).

Agile Alliance Media Contact:
Phil Brock
Agile Alliance Managing Director
Office: +1-503-554-8230
news@agilealliance.org