About Me

Philippe Bourgau, Agile and Craft Coach, solving technical challenges with people collaboration.

I want to innovate a more sustainable software industry!

Join me on the path to higher consciousness so we all become change agents!

I value:

  • Peace rather than emulation
  • Freedom rather than safety
  • Disruption rather than tradition
  • Deliberate Growth rather than comfort
  • Learn while doing and making mistakes!

I blog about:

  • How to work, think, and coach the eXtreme Programming way
  • How to run practical sessions, like workshops and courses, to trigger productive collaboration and grow people
  • How to change organizations for a more sustainable pace, even when we are at the bottom of the hierarchy

Bio

An early adopter of eXtreme Programming, I have been practicing since 2003 and mentoring teams since 2006. Thanks to XP and refactoring, I have delivered high-quality, fit-to-purpose, and future-proof software with less stress and overtime.

I have worked on many aspects of software: technical, product, people, process, and quality. I contributed to 2 persons as well as multi-team projects. I designed greenfield systems but also refactored legacy code bases.

I believe the two most essential skills for anyone working in the industry are:

  • Working in baby steps. It’s always possible to split the work into smaller pieces! Craftsmanship, Lean Product Development, and Continuous Delivery fall into this category.
  • People collaboration. G. Weinberg said: “No matter what the problem is, it’s always a people problem.” Pair and Mob Programming, Liberating Structures, Event Storming, Verbal Aikido, and Non-Violent Communication all fall into this category.

These two skills make work safer, more sustainable, productive, and valuable! Combined, they transform work.

Today, I help teams to reach these benefits by adapting these skills to their unique context.

I’m currently coaching at Murex and here’s my resume. My coaching style is about empowering anyone to inject some change into the organization around them.

I can help you with speaking, training, or running strategic workshops in your organization.

Finally, I love doing side projects, from wannabe businesses to open source.

Side projects

Here are the main side projects I’ve been working on throughout the years