What's the Purpose?

Dave Hoover and I sat down in 2007 to brainstorm the future of Obtiva. At the time, Obtiva was still the young, awkward kid you knew in junior high school. But like all nerdy adolescents, we dreamed of what we would be when we grew up.

Back in 2007:

• We knew we were highly skilled at writing Web-based software in Ruby on Rails and lightweight Java.
• We had years of experience running Extreme Programming projects under challenging circumstances. We couldn't imagine writing software without using Agile practices.
• We were compelled to give back to the technology community by teaching classes and organizing and speaking at geek-centric events.

So, these were all things we were doing. These were our activities. Week after week. But why? More specifically, why at Obtiva? Couldn't we just join one of the local agile shops and write great code?

What was Obtiva's purpose (aka Kevin's and Dave's) in bringing together this collection of awesomely talented Chicago developers and agilists? That was what we wanted to understand.

We answered that question by figuring out what motivated us (Dave and Kevin) to roll out of bed every morning. Each day, we aspired to do work where we would role model how to deliver amazing software and execute smooth, drama-free projects. Once that was verbalized, it quickly became clear:


For Obtiva, it is not enough to write kick-ass software. We seek to elevate others to do the same. Of course, we always strive to leave a client's code base better than we found it. But, we also always strive to leave a client's team better than we found them.