Arriving back at the beginning...

As T.S. Eliot wrote:
the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

I'm back at the code-face again: working as an Agile Coach with software teams. It's an interesting experience: I feel that my time away has helped me see the challenges and pressures of project delivery more clearly (such as tight schedules without clear priorities, restrictive budgetary rules that confuse “cost” with “value”, and management / reporting structures that reinforce divisions between groups instead of opening up communication and collaboration between the individuals that need to work together to achieve the desired results.) Perhaps as an outsider – a consultant – I have a privileged viewpoint, though I don't really buy that argument. People within the teams I work with often describe the problems they have in terms of the complex, systemic interactions within their organisation: problems that require more than a simple “fix” to one activity (or even, shudder, one person) in isolation.