Susan Courtney

SVP Technology and Operations & CIO at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska

I could not more strongly recommend Agile Transformation. They were absolutely critical to a very successful transformation of our Information Services department. We worked with them to define our vision, roadmap and supporting execution plan – and it has paid off. We have bridged the gap that we previously had between IS and our business partners, we have a much more empowered and high performing enterprise, and we have truly transformed our culture! Thank you Agile Transformation!!

Jennifer Richardson

VP Claims at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska

Agile Transformation provided the catalyst to tranform the culture of my team. The Servant Leadership course starts the transformation by focusing on the essential characteristics and skills of a leader dedicated to supporting and developing their team. Further Facilitation classes and team building address more specific skills. Agile Transformation worked with us to help develop strategy, resolve conflict and consistently produce high performing teams. Agile Transformation willingly adjusted their strategy and course work to accommodate our service team and our Lean Program. I strongly recommend them.

Rene Rosendahl

Director of Agile Enablement, Cox Automotive

In 2016 Cox Automotive has broadened their use of AgilityHealth in the enterprise and we now have about 45 AHFs and 140 delivery teams set up in the system with more to come as newly minted AHFs start rolling out AgilityHealth further within DealerTrack.

As quite a few new coaches just got certified, AgilityHealth continues to be brought up in the Enterprise Agility group and the coaches are thinking about how to leverage AgilityHealth to understand team health and how it can be used to guide coaching engagements as well as transformation work.

From one of our coaches: “I partnered with our AgilityHealth champion to review open Organizational Growth Items with appropriate team members across the Portfolio, Program and Delivery team levels to successfully influence resolution and closure of five (5) organizational impediments. A majority of the resolved organizational impediments were related to increasing team stability as well as communication and gathering affected team input when team member changes were planned.

Measured business outcomes from the monthly business review have shown the capacity churn rate has dropped approximately in half from its high (20%) in February through August (the most recent measurement) while Feature time to market has also decreased by over 25% from January (15.8 weeks) through August (11.6 weeks)”

Working with the Agile Transformation has as always been fun. The team has been very responsive and, especially when it comes to issues or urgent requests, been able to turn things around very quickly, often in a day or less.

Aaron Long

VP of Information Technology at Corelink Administrative Solutions

If you’re looking for a holistic approach to changing your organization to adopt Agile methodologies you should look no further.  ATI has been successful at coaching many of our teams to adopt Agile and they have done so by training teams on methodologies, team leadership and how each role fits into the big picture all the way to training the leadership of the organization on strategic thinking.  ATI has deployed coaches that have real world experience building and leading teams that are invaluable to us along this journey.  Our journey was accelerated significantly by using ATI.

Joni Wheeler

President and CEO at Corelink Administrative Solutions

ATI has been instrumental in our transformation journey thus far. Sally and her team have been incredible partners in numerous aspects of coaching; including adaptive leadership, agility health, 1 on 1, and facilitation.  They bring a passion and energy to every engagement that is unique, and a personal commitment to the customer that really differentiates them from other industry service models.  To say that my experience with them has been ‘invaluable’, would be an understatement.

Efrem Habteselassie

Vice President of Agile Enablement and Transformation at Royal Bank of Canada

Andy Carritt

Sr Director of Information Technology for Irrigation at Valmont Industries, Inc.

Agile Transformations was brought in to help us improve our product development process through Lean Product Development and Lean Business Agility.  This has been a wild success and is allowing us to completely revamp our process and improve our speed to market.  The concepts used that were Agile related have spread like wildfire in our organization and is now used in some form in almost every functional area.  I would highly recommend Agile Transformations to any business, its not just for IT anymore.

Paul Levy

VP, Custom Development at STRATA Marketing

Sally and her team have provided STRATA with some superb Agile
training and coaching. I highly recommend Agile Transformations. I
can’t think of a better way to say this…Their work over the last year
was transformative.

Chris Lenzo

Vice President, Technology at NextGear Capital

NextGear Capital’s Technology organization is unique in that it is less than 3 years old. We have hired more than 200 team members into the technology group during this time and have a mission to adopt lean and agile thinking as part of our Technology team’s vision.

In previous organizations, my experience with agile transformation involved replacing an existing set of practices. At NextGear Capital, we were building our agile practices in a “green field” way. Finding an agile coach with this kind of experience was a prerequisite. Working through an established agile network, we engaged Randy to help with our implementation.

Randy was instrumental in helping to shape our organization in many ways. Working at all levels (senior, mid-level and team), he helped create and develop our agile thinking and focus our attention to delivering value to our business stakeholders. His knowledge, energy and passion were instrumental in helping NextGear Capital create a agile technology organization.

Randy possesses a strong set of skills and understands all aspects of organizational change. He is thorough in his approach and willing to engage at any level to ensure team and organizational success.

Eva Kolta

Manager, Product Development at Verizon

I know as the President of Agile Transformation, you probably constantly receive positive feedback. However, I feel Roger’s recent efforts deserve a special shout out. As I am sure you know, last week we had a JumpStart (2- day Training/1- day Quarterly Planning) for our third LBA Pilot. While it wasn’t the perfect event I dreamed it would be, it was as we like to say “roughly right.” It was the very first LBA (Lean Business Agility) event that I, Eva the Agile Newbie, was in charge of leading. Regardless of the hours of work I put in for preparation, I was nervous and anxious.

While everyone has praised my JumpStart debut as a success, I know the event would never have been such a success without Roger’s large efforts. Roger’s coaching and help in the last two weeks were literally the legs I needed to stand on to lead this session. He went through the deck with me more times than I could count, and he practiced speaking points with me even more times than that. More importantly, Roger was not just worried about my speaking points, but that I actually understood the content that I was presenting.  We practiced days before, hours before, and even on breaks during the workshop. He also was there to support me the weekend prior (during his precious and rare time with his family). The week of the JumpStart, he put in many late nights, and always with one goal in mind, making sure that Tracy and I were confident and ready to lead the next day. He also was very helpful in jumping into the session when we cued him for backup. However, there were so many moments I felt myself saying some of Roger’s words and hoping to do it justice, only to see him smiling and giving me a reassuring thumbs up from the back of the room. I am extremely grateful for these efforts, and while I have communicated them with my leadership team, I wanted to be sure to communicate them with his leadership team as well.

I now feel confident that I could independently deliver a 2-day LBA training, and co-facilitate a quarterly planning. I know it’s probably small potatoes to agile experts, but I feel that  is HUGE for someone who didn’t know what agile was this time last year! While I did independently work very hard to get to this point, I know I wouldn’t be here without Roger’s help and guidance. Like any team, I think Roger and I formed, stormed, and normed and I think we are now even getting to performing. Check us out!  I know there will come a day when I look back and reflect on my Agile journey, and I will definitely remember Verizon and Roger as my foundation. Thank you.

Avery D. Harris, PSM

Enterprise Agile Transformation Coach at Fanatics, Inc.

I was privileged to get the opportunity with Samar at Fanatics, where I was Scrum Master to several Infrastructure workstreams. Samar took the challenge of guiding and coaching our entire Infrastructure organization (including Leadership) while we were struggling in our Agile transformation. Her charismatic personality blended with her outstanding leadership skills fit perfectly as our Enterprise Agile Coach. Under her leadership she not only taught us when it might be appropriate to apply various Agile techniques (such as Scrum, Scrumban, Kanban, etc.), but she also established accountability among the team members, resulting in higher performance and an increase in business value being delivered on a consistent basis. She taught us to be creative, empowering teams to self-organize and do anything that works for that particular team in order to be successful. It is just amazing to witness Samar’s ability to coach executives and get them to help drive Agile adoption downward within their own organization as well as across the Enterprise. I welcome the next opportunity I have to work with such an accomplished professional!

Joe Durkee

Director of Portfolio Management at NextGear Capital

Randy supported me as an Agile Enterprise Coach in the implementation of our Technology Products organization. He was instrumental in implement our Agile Portfolio Management and Scaled Agile practices. He coached my Product Managers and Product Owners towards developing their Agile skills. Randy was a key mentor for me and a great sounding board for the ideas and solutions I faced each week.

Craig and Karen Aman

Mid America Computer Corporation

The Agile learning environment has unlocked one of the major keys to bringing a cohesive working style within the company. Nick and Sally have seamlessly partnered with our teams to coach them through the Agile Life Cycle. The use of the Agile learning techniques has formed a strong inter-departmental collaborative bond between team members who support each other and celebrate individual and team successes together. As business owners, we recognize our foundation has been energized through the use of new tools and enhanced forms of communication, which has led to more adaptability and flexibility to different situations that arise. Employee knowledge has increased, as well as, the confidence to experiment with new approaches and processes by simply being able to define the objectives, set deliverables and share tasks as a team – the work agenda becomes clear! Conflict no longer means issues come to a complete stop; collaboratively, issue resolution is discussed in innovative ways through quicker recognition of impediments. Business partner requests are being met at intervals more quickly, with overall delivery brought in on time. This journey has been invaluable to the way our teams collaboratively work together!

Paul Steimel, PMP

Director of the Global Program Management Office at Spirent Communications

I worked with Samar when I was the Global Program Management Office Director. She was originally brought in to provide Agile training for my group. However, the training she provided was so well received, she was asked to continue training and coaching in other divisions in the company. Of all the workplace training I have had in the last 30 years,Samar’s stands out as the best. She is a not only an expert in Agile methodologies, but also with project management. Samar’s knowledge, experience and boundless enthusiasm make her a very strong asset for any company that is interested in moving to Agile methodologies.

Samantha Deines

Vice President, Organizational Development at CBE Companies

Agile Transformations provided a “best-in-class” instructor with real world experience in implementing Agile processes which proved to be very valuable in guiding our efforts. The quality of the training along with the knowledge and insight of Michael inspired a level of energy and synergy to our existing Agile efforts. We immediately began implementing processes and techniques that will continue to positively influence our culture, efficiency, and collaboration.

Jodi Berck

Sr. Method & Procedures Analyst at ConAgra Foods

I can’t say enough about the team at Agile Transformation. They have been our key partner throughout the first year of our Agile journey and continue to help us grow and mature as an organization. The courses are structured in such a way that teams can apply the concepts and principles immediately. I highly recommend Agile Transformation. Thank you Sally, Richard and team!

Lisa Fangman

Contract Business Analyst at TD Ameritrade

I’ve been fortunate to attend several on-site training courses, receive one on one coaching for many years, and be a critical part of Agile Transformation rolling out Agile to a large organization. Sally is the most vibrant, knowledgeable, and inspiring instructor and coach I have ever encountered! The facilitation class is particularly amazing and I only wish I’d have taken it at the start of my career! You can’t go wrong with ANY of their services; they will literally set you up for success!

Dawn Gore

Director of Enterprise Project Management at Securities America Member SIPC

This is the second class that I have coordinated at our company taught by Sally. This course was extremely valuable for our attendees. We were able to leave the course and immediately implement some of the techniques in the real world. We were also left with tools that we will be working to implement in the months to come. I received nothing but positive feedback from the attendees and we are seeing the results in the effectiveness of meetings company wide.

Robyn Messerly

Software Development Manager at Nebraska Furniture Mart

Agile Transformation provided us with quality training that elevated our level of productivity and confidence. They offer training opportunities for all levels of expertise, so I can go to them for all of my ongoing training needs. They are a real pleasure to do business with.

Peter Buchanan

Chief Executive Officer at VIAcode Consulting, LLC

I met Samar when she worked at CT TyMetrix – the largest customer of my company, VIAcode Consulting. She served as a program manager for two projects where we were involved:

1. The development of a key piece of software related to application security.
2. The development of a new UI for TyMetrix’s core application.

Her work as a business leader and technical project manager was outstanding in several ways:

1. She was able effectively organize and drive the performance of teams with minimal contents and maximum productivity.
2. She worked through problems effectively and quickly.
3. She minimized inspired a positive work environment for her teams.

I would recommend her without hesitation if you have a major project to implement and want to get it done right.

Julie Peck

General Manager/CEO & Integration Executive at Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services

Samar is a great example of a rare combination. She brings a high level of domain and process expertise to the table, along with a critical focus on getting results, and great skills in getting teams motivated and moving in the right direction. She’s someone that anyone would be lucky to have on their team!

Brandon Rinck, PMP, CSM

Project Manager at Hayneedle

Samar played a very important role, as an agile coach, helping Hayneedle transition into Agile project management. An Agile transition is not an easy process, but her positive attitude, work experience and willingness to have the tough conversations were critical in our success. Samar was a pleasure to work with and I hope to work with her again.