About Agile Advantage

Agile Advantage, Inc. offers software products and consulting services that help companies increase value from their software development budget. While Agile methods dramatically improve productivity for small developer teams, scaling Agile across a larger organization presents deeper challenges at the management level. Agile Advantage bridges the gap between Agile software development methods and more traditional business planning processes. Our web-based applications combined with enterprise Agile consulting services help software leaders work with business stakeholders for better business results.

Agile Advantage, Inc. combines the experience of Chris Sterling and Brent Barton of Sterling Barton with the power of expertly-designed software tools, such as Agile Advantage PERFORMER, to solve enterprise Agile challenges. We are uniquely positioned to provide breakthrough capabilities so our customers can profit from adaptive cycles inherent in our complex global environments. Our team members are experts in software development, project management and Agile methods so our customers can trust the quality and correctness of the software and services provided.

The Executive Team

Brent Barton

President
brent@agileadvantage.com

Brent is co-originator of the Agile EVM research paper published by IEEE in 2006. Brent graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in Mathematics that has served well in development of AgileEVM, furthering the foundational research to meet business challenges in moving to Agile methods. Brent has an extensive background mentoring and guiding whole organizations toward agility. Brent’s background includes development, project management, and senior management.

As former CTO of SolutionsIQ, Brent has unique insights into the challenges from increased intensity that iterative and incremental development brings to the project portfolio. Brent’s passion for helping individuals, teams and organizations build great software has shown to be a considerable asset for companies he has worked with.

Chris Sterling

Vice President
chris@agileadvantage.com

Chris has an extensive technology, process, and consulting background and brings his real world experience and deep passion for software development into AgileEVM. Chris has supported the efforts of many teams and whole organizations in their adoption of Agile methods. Chris has recently published the book Managing Software Debt: Building for Inevitable Change with Addison-Wesley.

Chris has created and contributes to multiple open source projects. He speaks at many conferences and user groups on topics ranging from test automation to architecture to management. Chris has taught the “Advanced Topics in Agile Software Development” class at the University of Washington in the Agile Developer Certificate extension program.

The Product Advisory Team

Johanna Rothmann	As principal of Rothman Consulting Group, Johanna Rothman consults, speaks, and writes on managing high-technology product development. During her consulting career, she has helped managers, teams, and organizations become more effective by applying her practical approach to the issues of project-, risk- and people management. She is a sought-after speaker and teacher in the areas of project management, people management, and problem solving.Johanna has written more than 200 articles and papers and is a frequent contributor to several technology publications. She is the author of Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects in addition to four other books on managing high-technology talent and process. Johanna is also a host and session leader at the Amplifying Your Effectiveness (AYE) conference. Join Johanna’s conversation on managing product development on her blog http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/.
Bob Schatz	Bob Schatz is the owner and Senior Consultant of Agile Infusion, LLC (http://www.agileinfusion.com). Since 2002, he has been a leader in the agile community and has helped many companies in their transition to agile development methods. Prior to founding his company, Bob served as VP of Development for Primavera Systems, Inc. where he was responsible for leading the team that develops Primavera’s software solutions for Enterprise Project, Resource, and Portfolio Management.Bob often speaks at industry events talking about the benefits and challenges of bringing agile techniques into an organization.
Tamara Sulaiman	Tamara Sulaiman is the co-originator of the Agile EVM materials and processes that integrate the traditional project management practice of Earned Value Management with the Scrum framework. She is currently Software Process Mentor at CollabNet, Inc. As a Managing Consultant, Trainer, Coach, ScrumMaster, and Project Manager Tamara is focused on coaching teams to effectively provide value to key stakeholders and customers through the frequent delivery of software.Tamara currently is serving on the Agile Alliance Board of Directors. As a thought leader, she continues to publish articles on Agile-related topics in industry publications. She also shares her experiences, ideas and expertise as a presenter and speaker at leading industry conferences. For more on Tamara’s thoughts on Scrum, visit her blog at http://blogs.danube.com/author/tsulaiman.
Jeff Sutherland	Jeff Sutherland is Chairman of the Scrum Training Institute, CEO of Scrum, Inc. and Senior Advisor and Agile Coach to OpenView Venture Partners. Jeff started the first Scrum at Easel Corporation in 1993 and worked with Scrum Co-Creator Ken Schwaber to formalize the Scrum development process at OOPSLA’95. In the same year, Sutherland provided Kent Beck with background information on the creation of Scrum to help him create eXtreme Programming. Scrum and XP are the most widely-used Agile processes worldwide and their creators are authors of the Agile Manifesto.Jeff has authored or co-authored 100 papers and regularly speaks at industry events around the globe. Jeff also shares his expertise in his blog at http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com.