Foalma

Foalma

The pinnacle of agile is the self-actualised team. It is the achievement of the highest level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. When the team has gone far beyond forming and norming, has established for itself its strengths and weaknesses, is aware of is purpose and methods, when the members can work as one toward a common goal, when the team has achieved the goals set in the Agile Manifesto, then it has achieved Foalma.

It can be recognised when those responsible for doing the work are working together effectively without external steerage. They are creating items the customer needs, not just producing documentation or doing busy work. They can find out for themselves what the requirements are, what the customer wants, and do so more effectively than having written contracts of work produced by other parties. They can explore for themselves changes in requirements and recognise and adapt to those changes, even initiate them.

Agile has been corrupted as it has become corporationalised, commercialised, boxed up and sold as certifications. It was not meant to be a rigid methodology with formalised oversight, but freedom to be trusted to work professionally and efficiently when experienced professionals are collaborating to do the work. Instead, the traditional core meaning of agile is being lost and the opportunity for Foalma is becoming harder and harder to achieve.

But, just as there are old hands in software development who feel Foalma is how they naturally want to work, so younger folk who have grown up under Capitalist Agile are achieving the level of competency and self-awareness they too feel entitled to a Foalma cultural environment to maximise their self-actualisation whilst also maximising their delivery potential for their customers.

Are you ready to consider Foalma?