Dustin Thostenson

Senior Consultant

Des Moines, IA - USA

For over two decades, Dustin has been dedicated to helping people, teams and organizations reach their goals by designing, developing and delivering solutions. Dustin has invested a significant amount of time coaching, consulting and crafting at over a dozen companies from small business and government agencies, mid-sized healthcare and service providers to Fortune 500 companies in the Industrial, Agriculture and Financial sectors. He has helped companies launch their Agile Transformations on Day 1 and refined

the improvements along the way.

As a software developer before Y2K, Dustin quickly realized the value in delivering quality, timely solutions. Writing code for solutions in COBOL, Java, VB and .NET produced immediate value for his employers and clients. Seeing how improving the way solutions were delivered extended the value to his peers and community, Dustin committed himself to implementing Agile and XP concepts as a more effective way for teams to satisfy customers with a high level of quality and relevance. In time, he incorporated practices like TDD and DevOps, which led the way to unprecedented speed and confidence.

This depth of experience and knowledge yields real value for his clients. For example, Dustin worked with a client to launch a new European cloud-based data center during normal business operations with zero downtime. This was initiated by a team member their first day on the job. Dustin knows every team is unique and is passionate about finding the right mix of inspiration, vision and hands-on practice to help them unlock their potential.

Dustin also focuses on the people aspects of the business. Working with people from the developers to the testers to the managers, leaders, and product owners helps ensure that the entire system is optimized to present the client’s best face to their customers. He believes that why we do what we do is as important as how we do it. Dustin has spent a decade teaching night programming classes and even longer involved in the technical and agile communities. This helps him better understand how people learn and what is important for them to learn.

Dustin likes to share this passion in his growing community by leading a user group, creating a nonprofit to bridge developers with other charities, and presenting at local, regional and national gatherings. He has a strong interest in preparing the next generation of creators by mentoring aspiring developers.

A lifelong Mid-Westerner, he loves spending time with his wife and 4 children, especially when they can expand their horizons through travel.