May 27, 2009 Meeting: Michael de la Maza on Learning Agile via Agile Games (Meeting Venue: MICROSOFT WALTHAM, 6:30PM)

MEETING VENUE: MICROSOFT offices in WALTHAM. REGISTER NOW for this meeting

DIRECTIONS TO MICROSOFT WALTHAM.

 

 

 

WEDNESDAY May 27 2009, 630PM to 830PM

MICHAEL DE LA MAZA ON: LEARNING AGILE VIA AGILE GAMES

Michael de la Maza is a Technical Fellow at Dynamics Research Corporation (http://www.drc.com). Previously, he was VP of Corporate Strategy at Softricity (acquired by Microsoft in 2006) and a co-founder of Inquira. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT and is a Certified ScrumMaster, Certified Scrum Practitioner, and an IEEE Senior Member.

Presentation: MICHAEL DE LA MAZA ON: LEARNING AGILE VIA AGILE GAMES

Learning Agile is about doing and experiencing. Books and lectures only take you so far– you have to experience some Agile activities to really get it.

In this meeting we play games in teams, to learn specific Agile principles like inspect-and-adapt, fail-fast, determining highest-value activities, iterations, continuous improvement and so on.

During this meeting we form groups that work on tasks in a game setting. We’ll discover what we want to learn, and play some well-known Agile games that help us get experience as we learn the concepts we want to understand.

Attend this meeting to directly experience Agile concepts while you enjoy some very Agile games. Show up, sync up with your peers, have a good time, and learn a ton.

Agile games are a great way to directly learn Agile concepts and Scrum’s roles– via direct empirical experience. You can also get a rare opportunity to wear pointy hats!

You exit this session with these take-aways:

o Understand the value of learning by experience
o Gain insight into essential Agile concepts and Scrum roles, via direct experience
o Gain an appreciation for all the roles in Scrum, not just the one you are currently occupying
o Gain an understanding of different learning styles and get plugged into the group via games

What the heck are these people doing? They are actually burning down work in a Agile game, that’s what. This is your chance to jump in, put on a pointy hat, and figure out this Agile stuff once and for all.

MEETING AGENDA:

6:30 PM: AGILE ORIENTATION: Scrum as described by Dan Mezick of New Technology Solutions

7:00 PM: Food and networking time. (NOTE: We hear the feedback on water, diet drinks, and more food choices.)

7:15 PM: MAIN EVENT: LEARNING AGILE VIA AGILE GAMES, with MICHAEL DE LA MAZA

8:25 PM: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION OF MEETING

MEETING VENUE: MICROSOFT WALTHAM. REGISTER HERE for this meeting

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DIRECTIONS TO MICROSOFT WALTHAM.