CAAC 12: Virginia Commonwealth Agency Agile Conference #12

Commonwealth Agency Agile Conference · CAAC 12

From Posting to Profile: Building Your Best Agile Team

Volunteer planning team

Full recording, 2 hr 49 min. Watch on the VSP YouTube channel ↗

1. Welcome: the agile draft 0:00:03

   Stephen Manley (Virginia State Police)

   The host compares hiring for an agile team to the NFL draft, minus the scouts and the pool of eager athletes, and sets up three topics, each discussed first by hiring managers and then by applicants: the job posting, the interview, and the Employee Work Profile (EWP).

2. The Agile Job Posting 0:15:34

   Stephen Manley (Virginia State Police), Richard Matthews (VITA), Barbara Bronson (VITA), Mohan Seemakurthi (Virginia State Police), Gurinderpreet Mann (Virginia State Police), David Crighton (Virginia State Police)

   Hiring managers from VSP and VITA, then a VITA project manager and three VSP team members (one a Scrum Master), discuss whether there is such a thing as an agile job posting and what applicants read into one.

   • Yes, there is an agile job posting. Words like adaptability, teamwork and customer focus signal it, and applicants read them as a sign of how far along the agency is.
   • The posting is built from the EWP, so getting agile into the EWP comes first.
   • A Product Owner can be hired from outside the business, as long as they can learn it and earn its trust.

   In the Scrum Guide: Product Owner · The Scrum Team

3. The Agile Interview 0:55:16

   Stephen Manley (Virginia State Police), Richard Matthews (VITA), Barbara Bronson (VITA), Mohan Seemakurthi (Virginia State Police), Gurinderpreet Mann (Virginia State Police), David Crighton (Virginia State Police)

   Both panels on what to ask, and what to listen for, when the job is on an agile team.

   • Use behavioral and scenario questions. A certification shows training, not practice.
   • "Tell me about a failure" shows whether someone inspects and adapts.
   • Ask what agile means to the candidate. Candidates should ask the agency the same question.

   In the Scrum Guide: Scrum Theory

4. The Agile EWP 1:45:18

   Stephen Manley (Virginia State Police), Richard Matthews (VITA), Barbara Bronson (VITA), Mohan Seemakurthi (Virginia State Police), Gurinderpreet Mann (Virginia State Police), David Crighton (Virginia State Police)

   How agile work shows up in the Employee Work Profile, the Commonwealth's job description and performance plan.

   • VSP writes agile into the EWP: about 30 percent agile coaching for supervisors and 15 percent agile practice for developers.
   • Career paths can grow within a pay band. VITA is working with DHRM on this.

   In the Scrum Guide: The Scrum Team

5. Conference retrospective 2:18:19

   Tim Roesch (Virginia Department of Education)

   Tim Roesch of the Department of Education facilitates the closing retrospective.

About these pages: curated and reviewed by Michael Vizdos, on the volunteer CAAC planning team since CAAC 4 and a speaker at CAAC 5, 10, 11, 17 and 18. Summaries and takeaways are drafted with AI (Claude) from the recording's captions and reviewed by Michael Vizdos before publishing (how I use AI). This is not the official conference site; the Virginia State Police hosts CAAC (vsp.virginia.gov/caac). Last reviewed October 20, 2026.

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