Chapter one is up for free on Leanpub. Quick! Go download it before I come to my senses!

In chapter one, the story opens with CIA operatives planning how to accept a delivery of something they don’t want anyone to know about. It’s a black operation and although it’s supposed be a milk run, malfunctioning crane automation at the Long Beach sea port almost spills the beans. (Well, something does get spilled but I leave that to you to read about.) A logistics company operates the port and one of their VPs, Mr. Cherneski, gets a call from his darknet customer who expresses displeasure at the near disaster. Our Scrum Master and hero Kartar gets a call too, but it’s from port operations since it’s his teams developing the sea port’s automation. By the end of the chapter, whatever the CIA was smuggling in was used to destroy a portion of the wall between Mexico and the US.

What’s upcoming in Chapter 2: Kartar gets a taste of the politics that happen with organizational change. He is charged with writing a report to get to the bottom of the crane incident at Port of Long Beach Sea Port, and it’s due by end of day.

Do you find thrillers, well thrilling? Then why not learn how to scale Scrum across an enterprise in an international thriller?

AGILE GRANDE is being written in a continuous delivery style on LeanPub. Chapters are going up as they are written and revised at https://leanpub.com/AgileGrande.

AGILE GRANDE is the sequel to AGILE NOIR. Kartar Patel,  a savvy Scrum Master charged with scaling Agile across an international logistics company who’s organizational structure is ill suited. Although ill suited for Agile it’s right suited for Mr. Cherneski, a selfish genius who masterminded an organization of siloed pigeon holes so employees unknowingly support his multi million dollar darknet business. Kartar doesn’t know why his transformation work is being resisted at every turn until he’s left for dead in the Indian Ocean and hunted by a foreign intelligence agency. Kartar washes ashore in Mumbai without his memory and has to go underground. He learns tools to analyze and adjust organizational structures. By the time he recovers from amnesia, he has only twenty-four hours to stop his daughter from marrying Cherneski’s son and get his Agile transformation back on track.

What’s a good servant leader to do other than get to work and save the day?

You love science fiction…

Every time the FOX movies logo hits the screen a small part of you always believes it’s Star Wars coming up next, and that small part is secretly disappointed whenever it’s not. Maybe you love science fiction enough to read it, write it, or create film or games.

So this your chance!

I’ll be in Peabody (next to Boston) July 27th and 28th. How about you use my calendar link and schedule an interview with the SciFi Thoughts podcast? You can rant convictions, whisper secrets, or turn the tables and question Lancer. Either way we’ll record and edit it to make it the most pure drop of SciFi Thought that can be distilled.

So step up and explain your relationship with science fiction! Let it never be said that I don’t seek both sides of every story.

Your fan and host,

Lancer Kind

PS: If you haven’t found SciFi Thoughts podcast, it’s here.

Don’t waste your commute time on dull matters! Stretch your brain with some future-oriented programming. Arrive at work with a refreshing new perspective on something you didn’t even know was a thing!

SciFi Thoughts, for a few short minutes, will tease and tantalize you with this genre from the future. SciFi has many dozens of sub-genres, each with different story telling styles that bring new possibilities into how you see the world. Our mission is to expand what science fiction means to you by exploring this genre that is diverse as the stars in the sky. SciFi Thoughts will, like the James Web Telescope, draw focus on a discovery and tantalize you with thoughts on movies and literature through intelligent and engaging discussion. If you’ve got a better idea on how to liven up your commute, leave a comment on the blog and we’ll see what we can do.

Cocktails, unfortunately, are not included.

Breaking news: SciFi Thoughts at NorwesCon!

If your heart is filled with scifi passion and you’d like to let it out in front of a mic, come find Lancer at the Con as he’s bringing his recording equipage. Better yet, make an appointment at: calendly.com/lancerkind

Kartar Patel

. . . a savvy project manager who is determined, disciplined, and and above all, handsome. He’s got a high profile project for a Vegas casino and puts his heart and soul into delivering the Winner. But when timelines are slipped, stakeholders want a pound of flesh for every ounce of letdown. He’s being followed . . . discovers tracking devices on his car . . . his meetings are bugged . . . he gets a gun. A mysterious godman tells him he’ll never succeed without transforming his project to an Agile process. Kartar discovers that not only his career and life are on the line, but so is his immortal soul.

Learn Agile and Scrum software development in an enjoyable and memorable way.

The following concepts are covered in this dramatic story:

• Agile Manifesto values and principals,
• the Scrum framework,
• history of Waterfall,
• User Stories,
• Planning Poker estimation,
• cross–team dependencies,
• Scrum of Scrums, and
• the challenges of organizational change.

Available in the US and India.  Coming too China (in Mandarin) this summer.