Scrumfamily – So Long, Farewell

I chose the final lines of my previous goal calendar post very carefully. When I wrote that my intention for 2016 is to do fewer things and do them well, it was also a subtle segue to this announcement.

This is my last post on the Scrumfamily blog. Although I won’t be taking it off the air for quite some time yet, I will not be posting new material, or replying to comments. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be disabling comments on all posts and updating relevant pages with a mothball notice.

I have been writing here since 2008. At first, there was little interest in this rather geeky niche application of Agile and Lean methods. I am pleased to say, however, that my readership has grown steadily over the years, especially after Bruce Feiler took “agile for families” mainstream in 2013. I have also developed a bit of a reputation in the Agile community as “that woman who writes about using Agile with her kids”. It’s a very handy conversation-starter at conferences and whenever I change jobs. 😉

However, all good things must come to an end, and it’s time for me to move on. There are many others now writing about agile families, and doing so very well and more prolifically than I am able to manage these days.  I must also honour the key lesson that my 2015 goal calendar experiment has taught me: If I want to achieve some of the (great?!) things that I aspire to, I have to narrow my focus and apply my energy to fewer projects.

Thank you very much for being part of the Scrumfamily journey. I have appreciated every comment, tweet, pingback, email exchange and offline conversation over the years. This journey has never been about creating a super-successful blog or monetizing my content, although I have toyed lightly with both at times. For the most part, this blog has primarily served as a very public and honest account of my own personal growth. By drawing on the familiar tools of my working life, I have been able to establish and develop a range of healthy principles and practices that will stand me and our little family in good stead for many years to come.

I trust that my experiences have been useful to you and have perhaps also helped you to bring order to your own personal flavour of chaos.

In case you’re wondering – I’m certainly not abandoning my agile ways. Quite the contrary. One of the areas I want to explore more fully is the application of agile techniques within primary and secondary school education. Using these techniques with my own kids (to great success) has triggered the desire to reach a wider group of young people. Who knows? There may even be a new blog somewhere on the horizon, depending on how things evolve.

Yours in Agile,

Maritza

P.S. You can still find me over on Twitter and LinkedIn. Do reach out through those channels if you share my interest in the application of agile within education, and would like to engage on the topic. Or if you just want to chat #personalkanban for old times’ sake. 😉