Category: AgileBoston

We’re all aware of the many challenges to learning on agile teams: the length of the release cycle, the clarity of the goal, the ability to learn from failures, and so on. But there’s more. There are things that are in our way every single day that we may not notice or be able to express; some of are even uncomfortable to consider. For example:

• How does my mindset affect my ability to learn as an individual and to contribute learning to my team and my organization?
• How does my approach to ownership advance or hinder my ability to help myself and others push through challenges and recover from failure?
• How does my respect – or lack thereof – for my peers affect my ability to build software?
• What does it cost me or my team when I miss an agreement? And, just as important, what does it cost when when I fail to confront a missed agreement?

These are some of the invisible impediments to learning that reduce our ability to create great software efficiently.

In this session, you’ll identify these invisible impediments to learning and leave with things you can do right away to accelerate individual, team, and organizational effectiveness.

NOTE: The downtown event is being held at PayPal in Boston. To accommodate security, registration will be closed at 9:00 PM EST on Tue 7/23. Walk-ins will not be allowed to attend. Please be sure to register in advance for this event and bring a photo ID.

Register:

This event has been postponed. There is no downtown event in July.

About The Presenter:

Amr Elssamadisy brings together individual human dynamics, environment and cultural engineering, and agile software development practices to produce immediate and lasting results for his clients.  With a hands-on approach, and infectious can-do attitude, Amr leverages his years of experience (both success and failure) to hold up a mirror to the organization and then guide and teach his clients to make incremental, measurable improvements.

Meeting Agenda:

6:00 pm Introduction

6:30 pm Beverages and socializing

6:50 pm Main event

7:50 pm Done

8:00 pm Done Done

Meeting Location:

PayPal
1 International Place (6th floor)
Boston, MA 02110

Register:

This event has been postponed. There is no downtown event in July.

 

Slides from this talk are available: Agile Hiring: It’s a Team Sport

When you think of hiring for your team, do you think of paperwork, and endless interviews, wondering if this candidate is really right, and the difficulty in making a decision? You know the cost of hiring people is high, and the cost of not getting the right person is even higher. You can apply agile approaches to your hiring, iterating on everything in the hiring process, getting feedback as you go, and involving the entire team. Just as agile is a cross-functional and team approach to developing great products, you can make hiring a cross-functional and team approach to hiring the best people who fit your team.

Join Johanna Rothman, author of “Hiring Geeks Who Fit”, in this talk where she will explain how to have the team review resumes, interview, create auditions, and make the hiring decisions to ensure you have people who fit with the team. She’ll also explain where and when it makes sense for the hiring manager to take the lead, such as for phone screens, organizing the interview, and the offer. If you have agile HR people, bring them, because we want them involved, and they have a place, too.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/394992

About The Presenter:

Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” helps organizational leaders see problems and risks in their product development. She helps them recognize potential risks, seize opportunities, and remove impediments.

Johanna was the Agile 2009 conference chair. She is the current agileconnection.com technical editor. Johanna is the author of these books:

• Manage Your Job Search
• Hiring Geeks That Fit
• Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects
• The 2008 Jolt Productivity award-winning Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management
• Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management
• Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People

She is writing a book about agile and lean program management. She writes columns for Stickyminds.com, Dice.com, and projectmanagment.com, and writes two blogs on her web site, jrothman.com, as well as a blog on createadaptablelife.com.

Meeting Agenda:

6:30 pm Introduction

7:00 pm Food, beverages, and socializing

7:20 pm Main event

8:20 pm Done

8:30 pm Done Done

Meeting Location:

CORPORATE OFFICE PARK
200 West Street
Waltham, MA 02451

The event room is located on the 1st floor. Enter the building. Take the hallway to the left. Walk past the elevators. The door to the event room will be on your right before the restrooms.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/394992

Slides from this talk are available: Agile Hiring: It’s a Team Sport

When you think of hiring for your team, do you think of paperwork, and endless interviews, wondering if this candidate is really right, and the difficulty in making a decision? You know the cost of hiring people is high, and the cost of not getting the right person is even higher. You can apply agile approaches to your hiring, iterating on everything in the hiring process, getting feedback as you go, and involving the entire team. Just as agile is a cross-functional and team approach to developing great products, you can make hiring a cross-functional and team approach to hiring the best people who fit your team.

Join Johanna Rothman, author of “Hiring Geeks Who Fit”, in this talk where she will explain how to have the team review resumes, interview, create auditions, and make the hiring decisions to ensure you have people who fit with the team. She’ll also explain where and when it makes sense for the hiring manager to take the lead, such as for phone screens, organizing the interview, and the offer. If you have agile HR people, bring them, because we want them involved, and they have a place, too.

NOTE: The downtown event is being held at PayPal in Boston. To accommodate security, registration will be closed at 9:00 PM EST on Tue 6/25. Walk-ins will not be allowed to attend. Please be sure to register in advance for this event and bring a photo ID.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/395003

About The Presenter:

Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” helps organizational leaders see problems and risks in their product development. She helps them recognize potential risks, seize opportunities, and remove impediments.

Johanna was the Agile 2009 conference chair. She is the current agileconnection.com technical editor. Johanna is the author of these books:

• Manage Your Job Search
• Hiring Geeks That Fit
• Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects
• The 2008 Jolt Productivity award-winning Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management
• Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management
• Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People

She is writing a book about agile and lean program management. She writes columns for Stickyminds.com, Dice.com, and projectmanagment.com, and writes two blogs on her web site, jrothman.com, as well as a blog on createadaptablelife.com.

Meeting Agenda:

6:00 pm Introduction

6:30 pm Beverages and socializing

6:50 pm Main event

7:50 pm Done

8:00 pm Done Done

Meeting Location:

PayPal
1 International Place (6th floor)
Boston, MA 02110

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/395003

 

ALISTAIR COCKBURN ON: THE AGILE MANIFESTO

The Agile Manifesto was drafted and ratified in 2001. The document specifies 4 values and 12 principles. In theory at least, these values and principles form the underlying philosophy of design behind every Agile practice.

It’s 12 years later. What’s changed?

 

Brought to you by the Agile Boston & Agile New England User Groups

 

 

 

In the present day, the value of the Manifesto is routinely called into question. Some folks want to add new content, or change existing content, and even DELETE some of it.

Some very vocal people in the Agile community are even on record as stating that “it does not say very much at all.”

Other “vocal locals”, from Boston, who we might call “Manifesto fundamentalists”, are saying that the 4 values and 12 principles are super-important, and as timely as ever.

Which is it?

What is the Agile Manifesto?

Why do you care?

Is the document a dead letter, or actually more important than ever before?

ALISTAIR COCKBURN was there when the Manifesto happened. He helped make it happen and is a signatory. He is one of a kind and has stories and lore about the origin of the Manifesto that you cannot make up.

During this event Alistair connects the past, present and future of the Manifesto, and explains how to translate the Manifesto principles into effective Agile practices you can use today.

And more. We have absolutely no idea what he might say next.

 

Can you DO a principle? A value?

What is a methodology?

What does certification on a practice have to do with the Agile Manifesto?

 

This is sure to be a highly informative and entertaining meeting. (Let the record show that previous conference sessions by this speaker have included dancing girls (on one occasion) and men in kilts playing bagpipes (on another.) Prepare to be surprised!

If you miss this one-of-a-kind event in Boston on 5/29 featuring Alistair Cockburn, you have no one to blame but yourself.

 

In this session, you’ll learn:

• The “story behind the story” of the Agile Manifesto
• How the form & content of the Manifesto got hammered out in 2001
• Why or why not the 4 values and 12 principles matter in 2013
• Whether Agile practices popular today actually honor the Manifesto, & what this might mean for your organization’s Agile adoption
• Why bagpipes and dancing girls are important

NOTE: REGISTER EARLY. The downtown event is being held at PayPal in Boston. To accommodate security, registration will be closed at 9:00 PM EST on Mon 5/27. Walk-ins will not be allowed to attend. Please be sure to register in advance for this event and bring a photo ID.

REGISTER: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/390948

NOTE: Do not register casually. Registering is an explicit commitment to attend. Registering casually is a disservice to everyone attending: as it throws off foo/beverage and seat counts & causes many woes for volunteers who are working to serve the Agile community in Boston. If you register we expect you to attend!

 

About The Presenter:
Dr. Cockburn (pronounced Co-burn, the Scottish way) is an internationally renowned project witchdoctor and IT strategist, best known for describing Software development as a Cooperative Game (discussion: Re: Cooperative game manifesto for software development), for helping craft the Agile Development Manifesto, for finally defining Use Cases (discussion: Re: Use cases) for developing the initial response technique relaxation/massage form, and for creating the oath of non-allegiance (discussion: Re: Oath of Non-Allegiance), which has been translated into dozens of languages.

 

NOTE: The meeting venue has formal security. Bring a picture ID. Plan to arrive at 6PM so you can be processed into the building, ride the elevator up to the 6th floor, and get situated.

 

JAMIE GAULL PLAYS LIVE: We are pleased to announce that Jamie Gaull of LeapFrog Systems will perform classic rock and acoustic rock-and-roll tunes during the break. He’s an Agile guy by day that plays in bars and clubs by night. You can use these links to listen to sample tunes, check out pictures, and visit the Plan B web site. We welcome Jamie Gaull!

 

Meeting Agenda:

6:00 pm Show up, grab a beverage, socialize (arrive on time!)

6:30 pm Main Event with Alistair Cockburn, PART ONE

7:15 pm BREAK. Music by Jamie Gaull (related link)

7:30 pm Main Event with Alistair Cockburn, PART TWO

8:10 pm Done

8:15 pm DONE DONE

Meeting Location:

PayPal
1 International Place (6th floor)
Boston, MA 02110

NOTE: REGISTER EARLY. The downtown event is being held at PayPal in Boston. To accommodate security, registration will be closed at 9:00 PM EST on Mon 5/27. Walk-ins will not be allowed to attend. Please be sure to register in advance for this event and bring a photo ID.

REGISTER: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/390948

NOTE: Do not register casually. Registering is an explicit commitment to attend. Registering casually is a disservice to everyone attending: as it throws off foo/beverage and seat counts & causes many woes for volunteers who are working to serve the Agile community in Boston. If you register we expect you to attend!

 

Prior to adopting Scrum three years ago, Chris Sullivan and his teams at Markem-Imaje had been using Agile and Iterative practices for 10 years with mixed results. After 75 sprints of practicing Scrum, it’s clear that the learning and need for improvement never ends.

At this session, you will learn:

•  How a global organization of distributed software development teams improved the quality of their deliverables and reduced their time to market for new features.
• How teams wrapped mechanisms and practices around the Scrum framework to ensure good synchronization of wider program activities.
• How teams created effective tracking and reporting processes for stakeholders.
• How they implemented Scrum in a product development company led by distribution, marketing, manufacturing, and support organizations with long histories of waterfall and Stage-Gate practices.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/384524

About The Presenter:

Chris Sullivan is a senior manager of software development at Markem-Imaje with more than 20 years of experience as a software engineer and system architect of industrial product identification equipment and solutions.  Chris has been leading and supporting the adoption of Agile and Scrum practices across a global software development organization for almost ten years.  He is now helping the wider product development organization leverage the lessons learned from the software development teams across the non-software functions.

Meeting Agenda:

6:30 pm Introduction

7:00 pm Food, beverages, and socializing

7:20 pm Main event

8:20 pm Done

8:30 pm Done Done

Meeting Location:

CORPORATE OFFICE PARK
200 West Street
Waltham, MA 02451

The event room is located on the 1st floor. Enter the building. Take the hallway to the left. Walk past the elevators. The door to the event room will be on your right before the restrooms.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/384524

Slides from this talk are available: Getting Our Hands Dirty.

Apperian is a Boston startup that helps leading brands deploy and manage the full life-cycle of mobile apps for iOS, Android, HTML5, and Blackberry. Join us this evening as Alan Murray and John Caldas from Apperian will discuss the key elements and turning points in their journey with Scrum. You’ll hear the story from the perspective of both the Scrum Master (John) and the Product Owner (Alan). They’ll talk openly about what worked well, what didn’t, and how their alignment varied widely over time.

In this session, you’ll learn:

• How they migrated from cowboys to Scrum teams
• The “one backlog” method used for working with multiple scrum teams
• The complexities of growth and working with off shored teams
• How they added a research team to the mix

NOTE: The downtown event is being held at PayPal in Boston. To accommodate security, registration will be closed at 9:00 PM EST on Tue 5/21. Walk-ins will not be allowed to attend. Please be sure to register in advance for this event and bring a photo ID.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/387949

About The Presenter:

Alan Murray is responsible for building Apperian’s brand and establishing the company as the clear leader in the mobile app management space. Alan is an expert at leveraging new marketing methods to accelerate the growth of Apperian and draws from his 20 years designing and bringing innovative software solutions to a global market.

John Caldas is a software developer turned Scrum Master at Apperian. After completing his computer science degree at Boston University he found the startup world and settled in. With experience in web, mobile, web services, devops, and systems administration, John enjoys working on all aspects of product development.

Meeting Agenda:

6:00 pm Introduction

6:30 pm Beverages and socializing

6:50 pm Main event

7:50 pm Done

8:00 pm Done Done

Meeting Location:

PayPal
1 International Place (6th floor)
Boston, MA 02110

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/387949

 

Slides from this talk are available: Are You Agile/Agile

Recent surveys show that 20% of those surveyed feel that their organizations are 100% agile, while a whole 50% claim a mature adoption. How do they know? How do they categorize agility, and how do they measure their agility? Have they gained agility over the last six months, and what has been their return on their investment. These are all questions that an organization’s management should be able to answer. Ken will discuss these topics and the underlying issues during his talk.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/369554

About The Presenter:

Ken Schwaber co-developed the Scrum process with Jeff Sutherland in the early 1990s to help organizations struggling with complex development projects. A 30-year veteran of the software development industry and signatory to the Agile Manifesto, he has written multiple books about Scrum including “Agile Software Development with Scrum”, “Agile Project Management with Scrum”, and “The Enterprise and Scrum”.

Meeting Agenda:

6:30 pm Introduction

7:00 pm Food, beverages, and socializing

7:20 pm Main event

8:20 pm Done

8:30 pm Done Done

Meeting Location:

CORPORATE OFFICE PARK
200 West Street
Waltham, MA 02451

The event room is located on the 1st floor. Enter the building. Take the hallway to the left. Walk past the elevators. The door to the event room will be on your right before the restrooms.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/369554

Slides from this talk are available: Are You Agile/Agile

Recent surveys show that 20% of those surveyed feel that their organizations are 100% agile, while a whole 50% claim a mature adoption. How do they know? How do they categorize agility, and how do they measure their agility? Have they gained agility over the last six months, and what has been their return on their investment. These are all questions that an organization’s management should be able to answer. Ken will discuss these topics and the underlying issues during his talk.

NOTE: The downtown event is being held at PayPal in Boston. To accommodate security, registration will be closed at 9:00 PM EST on Tue 4/23. Walk-ins will not be allowed to attend. Please be sure to register in advance for this event and bring a photo ID.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/369561

About The Presenter:

Ken Schwaber co-developed the Scrum process with Jeff Sutherland in the early 1990s to help organizations struggling with complex development projects. A 30-year veteran of the software development industry and signatory to the Agile Manifesto, he has written multiple books about Scrum including “Agile Software Development with Scrum”, “Agile Project Management with Scrum”, and “The Enterprise and Scrum”.

Meeting Agenda:

6:00 pm Introduction

6:30 pm Beverages and socializing

6:50 pm Main event

7:50 pm Done

8:00 pm Done Done

Meeting Location:

NOTE: The April downtown event is being held at a different location. Use the following address for the event.

PayPal
1 International Place (6th floor)
Boston, MA 02110

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/369561

Slides from this talk are available: Effective Product Ownership

Pictures from the 3/27 meeting:

Frank Saucier gave a value packed talk on PO techniques at the 3/27 Waltham meeting. About 75 people attended the meeting, There was some lively discussion and debate after the meeting about how to help organizations learn faster via agile & Scrum practices.

Most Product Owners have a grasp of the Product Owner role defined by Scrum and they play the role every day, but do they truly seek to master the role? If not, why not? Could it be that a good number of Product Owners are blessed with the role by management without actually getting the chance to opt into the role? Could it be that Product Owners don’t get the necessary training they need? Could it be that Product Owners don’t feel safe enough to experiment with techniques to find out what works and what doesn’t. The answer is probably a little bit of all of those and maybe a few more things mixed in.

At this session you will learn:

• The characteristics of an effective Product Owner.
• The perceived and dynamic nature of value.
• How to apply a new perspective – “Triple View” value.
• Why businesses don’t like where they are on the value timeline.
• How to build and mine a “value team”.
• How and why to “artifact” the product backlog.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/352977

About The Presenter:

Frank Saucier is an Agile coach and trainer at FreeStanding Agility. He has over 20 years experience in software and technology spanning software development, computer engineering, application engineering, technology marketing, & project management. He has domain expertise in  Enterprise Mobile, Insurance, Financial Systems, Online Publishing, Design Automation, Defense Systems, and Web Technologies. You can reach Frank by email at franks@freestandingagility.com.

Meeting Agenda:

6:30 pm Introduction

7:00 pm Food, beverages, and socializing

7:20 pm Main event

8:20 pm Done

8:30 pm Done Done

Meeting Location:

CORPORATE OFFICE PARK
200 West Street
Waltham, MA 02451

The event room is located on the 1st floor. Enter the building. Take the hallway to the left. Walk past the elevators. The door to the event room will be on your right before the restrooms.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/352977

Agile is often introduced into companies as a process that only the engineering teams have to use. When Agile is only looked at in this narrow scope, it’s limited in terms of the benefits that it can bring to the business. There is a better approach. One where Executives and Sr Management see Agile as a holistic approach to adapting their culture and building customer value. When companies take this approach, Agile has a much bigger potential benefit. It can help those companies make more money. Now do I have your attention?

At this session you will learn:

• The importance of Agile as a business strategy.
• How Agile can lead to passionate customers.
• How Agile can lead to more productive employees.
• How all this leads to making more money.

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/352940

About The Presenter:

Mario Moreira is an Agile Enterprise Change Agent and Agile Coach who helps lead organizations in their Agile transformation efforts. He is a seasoned Agile Coach working with very large distributed teams to small co-located and supports all levels of personnel from Scrum teams, ScrumMasters, Product Owners, middle management, to Executive management. Mario is a certified ScrumMaster (CSM) and Scrum Professional (CSP), and has implemented Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), and Kanban practices including Continuous integration and build to numerous product teams and enterprises.

Meeting Agenda:

6:00 pm Introduction

6:30 pm Beverages and socializing

6:50 pm Main event

7:50 pm Done

8:00 pm Done Done

Meeting Location:

NOTE: The downtown event is being held at a new location.

Workbar
711 Atlantic Ave.
Boston, MA  02110

Workbar Atlantic Ave is right down the street from the MBTA Red & Silver Lines (South Station stop).  It is also just a short walk from the Orange Line (Chinatown or Downtown Crossing stops) and the Green Line (Boylston or Park Street stops).

Register:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/352940