Quick: You're a successful, established consultant. You have the opportunity to talk about one of the most difficult periods of your career: a period in which you lost hope, made mistakes, and faltered daily. What do you do?

Only an idiot would publicize that stuff, right?

Well... I'm a special kind of idiot.

I took a contract job as a programmer on a team customizing some web software for a large institutional customer. This team was the opposite of agile. I was bored and frustrated. It didn't take me long to remember Martin Fowler's advice. As a peon, could I make the kinds of changes I made as a (damned good!) XP coach? Or would they kick me out, causing me to change organizations a little more abruptly?

I decided to find out.

Change Your Organization: A Diary. Updated weekly.

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