I've been evangelizing agile practices since 2002 to anyone who would listen. After many years as a professional C++ developer, I became involved with Agile after reading a Dr. Dobbs article on how to create automated tests in C++. I am not sure what my next significant step towards mastery will be, but I'm considering returning to school for a Ph.D. Any suggestions would be appreciated!Pre-agile (1992-2001): Read a Book: Martin Fowler's Refactoring; Gamma's Design Patterns. Steady use of version control from the the time SourceSafe was introduced with MSVS 6.0.2002: Started practicing Test-Driven Development, began using Mocks in C++, creating link-time mocks as well as interface-based mocks.January 2003: Gave presentation to co-workers on the advantages of TDD, with fairly minimal response. Set up a testing run as part of an automated build that ran once a day. Practiced XP For One.Feb. 2004 Started a blog as a general diary, but later focused more on technical issues and agile development.June 2004 Read a Book: Extreme Programming ExplainedMay 2005 - Began attending local user group http://www.indynda.orgJuly 2005 New job at a non-agile company. Set up a continuous integration server and introduced TDD and automated tests.November 2005 Joined the Indianapolis Quality Assurance AssocationApril 2006 Attended CITCONF in ChicagoJune 2006 Read a Book: Working Effectively with Legacy CodeOctober 2006 Attended IQAA conference on quality enrichmentJanuary 2007 Read a Book: Scott Rosenberg's Dreaming in Code.February 2007 New job at a company that attempted many of the agile practices. First practical exposure to Story Estimation, Story Picking, and Stand Up Meetings, as well as integration testing in the form of Fitnesse. A CI build was already set up, but I added unit testing to the build.March 2007 Attended a lecture on community-building at local church.September 2007 Attended SD Best Practices conference in BostonOctober 2007 Began organizing Geek Dinners in Bloomington.November 2007 Began practicing Pair Programming at the officeMarch 2009: Read a Book: Domain Driven DesignApril 2009: Gave a presentation on DDD to co-workers.April 2010: Joined the Agile Skills Project |

Ben, it says in Feb 2004 you stared blogging--but there are no links to it. I'm curious about the articles you'd consider to be the most thought-provoking or that describe some problems you were facing...
>not sure what my next significant step towards mastery will be...
I'm not at the mastering level myself, but am curious about a couple of things:
* have you seen agile implemented in multiple contexts? (looks like 2007 was your first agile shop?)
* how have the user group meetings changed the way you do your daily work?
* what kinds of experiments are you doing with your current team, skill or practice-wise?