Frequently Asked Questions

How do I nominate someone?

Send an email to pask-nominations AT agilealliance DOT org. Please explain the reasons why you think the person you nominate should be considered.

Who chooses the winners?

The award committee is composed of all previous winners. We discuss nominations as they come in, then meet at the Agile conference to select a pair of winners. Not all past winners are necessarily present at that meeting; only those present have a say in picking winners.

How do you choose the winners?

We take into consideration the factual information passed to us via nominations and our personal knowledge of the nominees if that is relevant. We then attempt to reach consensus among those of the committee present. This often takes a bit of time, but we normally feel pretty confident at the end that our selection makes sense.

What does it take to win?

The award is intended to draw attention to people who, in the opinion of the award committee, are doing significant work that benefits the Agile community, and who are not getting as much recognition for it as we feel they should.

Why should I care about this award at all?

It's important to celebrate our successes. The award's philosophy isn't to single out two people and say "these people are special". It is just the opposite: to pick two people and say "this is who we are, as a community". If you care about being part of the Agile community, this is one of the ways in which it defines itself.

Why hasn't Ron Jeffries, Kent Beck, Ward Cunningham or [other Agile celebrity] won?

The award is intended as an encouragement. The message it conveys is something like "We've noticed you, we think more people should pay attention to you, but you're getting too little time in the spotlight at the moment." Therefore, we don't consider people who are already very well known and respected in the community: who have written two books or more, are routinely invited to deliver keynotes at conferences, and so on.

All the winners have been men, XPers, consultants, and programmers. What's up with that?

Who wins the award is in large part up to you. By nominating someone in a category you feel hasn't gotten enough attention, you'll be helping to correct any bias we might have introduced in the selection of winners. We feel no obligation to select winners from any particular category; we feel that our role is to take nominations into account, and to draw from the pool of candidate the ones who are most likely to further the award's purposes, as explained above.

As an example, not all of the winners have been XPers any more. Simon and Gus were nominated by the community on the basis of their Lean practice.

How do you stop this from becoming an Old Boys Network?

We do not make it a requirement that the winners should be people we're acquainted with, or even people we know about. If enough people nominate a given person, even though we've never heard of them, we pay attention. We focus on demonstrated contributions to the Agile community.

How do you feel about the risk of dividing the community through the award?

We accept that there are risks to having an award program at all. We plan to take your feedback into account, and we're open to changing the award if we are presented with better ideas. We have done that, in response to feedback, practically every year since the award's inception.