Over the years, I was exposed to the Agile software 
development model a few times but never had a chance to
dive in. Last week, HQ engineers trained two days of a
particular flavor of Agile and I enjoyed the most part.

The lecturer, Bob, flew in from Philadelphia. A white male 
in his late 50s, he had a six-feet-two frame, a slightly
protruding belly, a ruddy face, receding auburn hair, and
sharp blue eyes.

A natural speaker or at least looking like one, Bob 
delivered his messages with eloquence and passion. In his
mind, obviously, Agile was everything that the incumbent
"Waterfall" was not. The nature of the topic, however, 
inevitably led to questions. Many were skeptical and it felt
as if we were trying our best to shoot him down. Our teacher
was game and there were no lack of excitment. The first day
passed in lively verbal sparring between the guy and crowd.
I liked him. Right or wrong, he was a tough nut. Were I in his
position, I couldn't hold my emotion so well.

Bob must have been in good shape. The next morning he came 
early on stage looking refreshed and asking if everyone had
a good sleep. In response, my greeting "How was YOUR sleep?" 
drew laughters from the gang. I paid more attention and
contributed to the discussions with an answer on coding
style practice and by pointing out the organizational changes
the Agile model seemed to imply.

The answers were not important to me, though. I just 
wanted to speak truthfully and had as much fun as possible.
I was less self-aware than yesterday and could utter a few
clear sentences in public without panicking. It was no big
deal, but if Dale Carnegie were right, I needed to build on
success stories and keep practicing speaking.

It felt like my coworkers had just noticed that I could talk.
One senior Chinese colleague told me I speak good English.
Well. I told him it was not all good news. I was just trying
hard to play a different game.