Choosing and evolving ways of working
Laurie’s training focuses on Disciplined Agile, which provides a toolkit for choosing the right way of working rather than prescribing a single framework. This is particularly relevant for organisations where different teams, work types, or constraints require different approaches.
His work helps organisations move beyond method adoption and into more deliberate decision-making about how work is structured, governed, and delivered.
Within the AgilityPro trainer network, Laurie provides specialist capability in Disciplined Agile, AgilePM, leadership coaching, and broader ways-of-working design.
Training style
- Focus on selecting the right approach rather than following a single method
- Encourages critical thinking about ways of working
- Explores trade-offs between different delivery approaches
- Connects frameworks to organisational reality
- Suitable for mixed environments with multiple delivery models
- Helps teams and leaders understand context-driven decisions
- Supports evolution of existing practices rather than replacement
- Encourages practical application over theoretical understanding
Experience and background
Laurie’s background combines technology, manufacturing, leadership, Agile coaching, and training. He taught himself to code and published two games while still at school, before discovering Lean as a manufacturing apprentice at Jaguar Cars, where his early experience included V12 engine assembly and robotic paint environments.
He later moved into IT, working with Agile pioneers at Marks & Spencer before taking on technical lead contracts with organisations including Coca-Cola and South African Airways. His career then developed into development management and senior IT leadership, including Divisional Head of IT at Tag in the City of London investment banking arena.
Now Yorkshire-based, Laurie helps teams and organisations deliver more value, more often, from their digital products. His combination of technical fluency, Lean background, Agile experience, and leadership coaching makes him particularly effective as a translator between teams, senior leaders, and the Board.
Key areas of focus
Laurie is accredited across both PMI and APMG training and coaching routes, including Disciplined Agile, AgilePM, AgileDS, MSP, and PRINCE2-related pathways. Course availability and certification details can change as training bodies update their programmes.
Published work and learning tools
Laurie is the author of Scrum Journal: a guide for Digital Leaders, and has also created Agile team learning games including Richer Roles and Richer Retrospectives through AgileStationery.
That practical design background shows in his training style, which often uses structured reflection, role clarity, and collaborative learning to help teams make Agile practice more tangible.
Courses Laurie commonly delivers with AgilityPro
Professional profile
Laurie’s professional background and current activity can also be viewed on LinkedIn.
Areas of focus
Training fit
Laurie’s training is particularly relevant for organisations that need to make thoughtful choices about ways of working, especially where multiple methods, delivery models, and organisational constraints need to coexist.
Training philosophy
Good Agile practice is not about choosing a method and defending it. It is about understanding the context, making better delivery choices, and helping people improve how work actually gets done.