Alan Atlas has been professionally involved in high tech for nearly thirty years. Starting out with a BA in Psych from Brown University and a BSEE from the University of Massachusetts, he joined Bell Telephone Labs as a hardware engineer and promptly went off to Georgia Institute of Technology to get an MSEE. During his time at Bell Labs, he discovered software and taught himself the C programming language.
Moving to the world of software development, Alan then spent some years developing kernel functions in a realtime UNIX kernel for data acquisition workstations. Promoted to OS Group Manager, Alan began 25 years of technical management during which he rose to the Sr. VP level before voluntarily downgrading back to Dev Manager where things are a lot more fun. Highlights of those years include the release of OSF Motif and the release of AvidNews 1.0, an industry-award-winning broadcast news management system from Avid Technology.
While a Development Manager in Web Services at Amazon.com, Alan discovered Scrum. He became a CSM, or Certified ScrumMaster, and he and his team used Scrum for over a year to successfully deliver Amazon S3, the industry-award-winning web service that provides unlimited Internet-connected storage, in 2006.
The success of the Amazon S3 project and Alan’s enthusiasm for the Scrum methodology led to widespread Scrum adoption within Amazon.com. Alan became a CST, or Certified Scrum Trainer, and then became the first fulltime Agile Trainer/Coach within Amazon. His experiences in this capacity led him to make a career switch into fulltime Agile Coaching and Training at Rally Software, a market leader in Agile tools and consulting.
Outside of work, Alan plays tenor and baritone saxophone in a Motown-style soul band, scuba dives, and naps whenever possible. Tormenting the family parrots also takes up a lot of his time.
