Ralph believes people make all the difference in every project. The people’s skills, how they work together and how they feel. Scrum, Kanban, eXtreme Programming, Management 3.0, these are just tools or frameworks that exist to help people.

He has been working in IT since 1997. He had different roles: from developer, tester, Scrum Master, Agile coach, lead, manager to VP. What he always liked most, however, was working with people to improve the processes and the environments they work in.

He is an active member of the Agile community and shares his insights and knowledge by speaking at conferences and writing blog posts. He is specialized in coaching, building (distributed) agile software teams and Management 3.0.

Some of his highlights of his career so far are:

• Implementing successful Management 3.0 practices like Exploration Days, Guilds and Kudo Cards in a distribution environment
• Being the first person in the world with the Management 3.0 Certificate of Practice
• Setting up Agile Testing in a Scrum environment as one of the first ISV companies in the Netherlands
• Hiring and building development teams in the Netherlands, Romania, US, and India
• Building nearshore and offshore teams in India, Romania, and US, including selecting the location, from scratch