Brett's Weekly Update

23 May 2024 - Spilling the beans

Spilling the beans

You see it. I see it. There’s something wrong in the “Agile” marketplace.

It’s a mess. What once stood for better ways of working has become a dirty word. Certifications are meaningless. Scrum Masters and Coaches are out of work. Companies are walking away—not from agility, but from the circus it has become. Agile is no longer helping companies. Instead, it is hindering them.

People built careers on this. They poured in years of study, coaching, and practice. Thousands spent on training and certificates. And now? Many can’t even land a low-paying entry-level job.

The brand is tainted. The methods are contested. There is no shared understanding. The market is flooded with noise. People are burnt out, disillusioned, and done pretending. Some have left. Some are hanging on in hope—fighting the good fight. I was, but I am now done pretending. I’m done being a bystander. I’m taking a stand. I’m going fix this crap! Not alone, but with anyone else who wants to.

And no, “Agile V3.0” or “Agile nextGen” won’t save it. “Agile 2” already tried—and sank like a lead balloon. A new manifesto, fresh buzzwords, yet another agile framework—none of it will work.

The problem isn’t the method. It’s the market and the brand. You can’t bolt new ideas onto something people no longer trust. Anything new under the “Agile umbrella” will draw fire. There’s too much ego, too much money, too many Agile wars, too much to lose. People will fight for their piece of the Agile pie. It’s one thing to fix a brand that lost trust. It’s an entirely different thing in a hostile market full of power plays, struggles, and competition. Anything new branded “agile” will get pulled into the downward spiral.

We’ve seen it before. We’ll see it again. That’s why we don’t fix it. We walk away. Agile had its moment, but it’s time to let it retire with the bit of dignity it has left. We learn from our mistakes. We modernise. We adapt. But more importantly, we bring solutions to real-world problems.

That’s why I’m building Practiqual™ (and soon it will be Practiqual®).

Not a tweak. Not a rebrand. A complete reset.

Practiqual starts clean. It’s grounded. Shaped by people who’ve lived through the mess and are committed to fixing what did not work.

• It puts leaders back in the frame, where they were previously ignored

• It’s about business, product, delivery, quality, and getting your product out the door with the least risk

• It is practical, not just principle-based or theoretical. Real how-to.

• It is pragmatic, built for the real-world complexity we all face

• It restores quality in many areas

• It restores credibility for skilled professionals

• It replaces noise with clarity, structure, and integrity

• It protects individuals who built careers on this, giving them a future

• It aims to rebuild trust

The biggest thing, though, is that it needs to protect!

• Protect you, your career and your reputation.

• Protect against money-making fads, money-making certificates.

• Protects from sharks with no skill, only out to make a buck

• Protect companies from being sold nonsense.

• Protect standards

• Protect quality

It has to be based on real-world problems. It cannot be vaporware. It has to be real and practical. It must protect quality and standards. Hence the name Practiqual. Here is the big thing: the knowledge is community-owned. It is not someone trying to milk every dollar; when done, it dies.

We are building something for the modern business world, where AI changes the rules, complexity is the norm, and actual delivery matters. Not theatre. Not jargon. Not games. Not theory. And not marketing hype, just to drive training and certification.

If you are done waiting for the old world to fix itself, Practiqual is the next chapter. Help write it.

What am I bringing? A foundation to build on. But it is not immutable. If anyone has a better idea that benefits everyone, it’s in.

The structure to protect what we build includes:

• Trademarking

• Independent and Non-profit making Certification.

• Certification marks (legally distinct from trademarks)

• Lawyers (yes, really)

• Several laws bind an independent protection agency. Intellectual Property Laws. Consumer Protection Laws.

Now here’s the good and slightly awkward part.

To make this work properly, I’m setting up the legal structure correctly. The protection agency cannot sell, consult, train, or make money from Practiqual related services. We have the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) here in Australia. If I blur that line, it creates a conflict of interest, and the ACCC will tear me apart.

So I won’t be able to train, consult, or make money from Practiqual™. Not now. Not ever. That’s by design. The protection agency and its staff must stay neutral. Stay impartial. No favouritism. No self-interest.

But that neutrality comes with real costs. There will be legal bills, trademark enforcement, and plenty of cease-and-desist letters in the future. We’ll need staff, tools, infrastructure, and support systems to do this right. And that means the agency will need a sustainable way to operate.

It can charge for membership and the costs of independent certification, competence testing. That’s legally allowed, and how it survives. I know many will have a knee-jerk reaction to this, but understand that when product + consulting + training + certification are all under the same roof, that is a self-fulfilling money-making racket. I did not see it for years; I was blinded. Now that I see it, I am pissed-off and doing something about it. It stops!

I’ve already engaged a legal firm—LegalVision—on a five-year retainer. We’re building the protection agency, defining the IP protections, and locking down the organisational structure.

This is a big topic, and I’m happy to answer any questions. I will be giving more details in the next few weeks.

If you are interested in getting involved from a community perspective for

• Trainers

• Consultants (coaches)

• Practiqual™ contributor

• Morale supporter

• Other?

It's a volunteer thing, just as I am not being paid, but I am paying for legal work.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments or as a direct message.

Recent Blogs and Posts

We Told Leaders to Step Back. Now We’re Begging Them to Step In. A massive gap exists in the agile market - Leadership. This is where Practiqual is going to differentiate.

AI and Stack Overflow [LinkedIn] - I posted a response to Andrew Brower's post on "Stack Overflow is on its deathbed and the stats prove it"

SCAM WARNING [LinkedIn] - There is scam on LinkedIn targeting people with the Open To Work banner.

Inside Scoop - Week 2 [PAID SUBSCRIBER] - My journey in building this business.

"Certified" in IT means nothing anymore. [Blog] Weekend courses. Pay-to-pass exams. Shiny badges with no rigour, no accountability, and no real-world proof. This is about the state of certifications and a trigger to why Practiqual

AI Is Making Us Stupid, and We're Applauding It - Lack of understanding AI and trusting it is going to have a massive impact on our world.

Bring on the Vibe Programmers! [LinkedIn] - Thinking that being a prompt engineer without programming skills will not work. If you don't know what your doing, how will you create the right prompt?