Collaboration or Communication

Keynotes

K3 Magnificence: Culture Hacking, the Common Platform, and the Coming Golden Era

Jim McCarthy, McCarthy Technologies, Inc.

Thu, 06/06/2013 - 8:30am

A culture is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that both describes and shapes a group. The unique challenges of creating software have demanded totally new types of corporate culture. In response, we have created agile, Scrum, and XP. These represent the birth of culture engineering and, although significant, are very primitive compared to what will follow. Jim McCarthy introduces “culture hacking,” a kind of cultural engineering that focuses on protecting personal freedom, extending openness, and embodying rationality.

Tutorials

ME Twelve Heuristics for Solving Tough Problems Faster and Better

Payson Hall , Catalysis Group, Inc.

Mon, 06/03/2013 - 8:30am

As infants, we begin our lives as problem-solving machines, learning to navigate a strange and complex world in which others communicate in ways we don’t understand. Initially, we hone our problem-solving talents. Then many of us find our explorations thwarted and eventually stop using—and then begin losing—our natural problem-solving ability. It doesn’t have to be that way. Psychologists tell us that people can regain lost skills and learn new ones to become better problem solvers. Payson Hall shares techniques and skills that apply to situations in real life.

TC Essential Patterns of Mature Agile Teams

Bob Galen, RGalen Consulting

Tue, 06/04/2013 - 8:30am

Many teams have a relatively easy time adopting the tactical aspects of agile methodologies. Usually a few classes, some tools introduction, and a bit of practice lead teams toward a fairly efficient and effective adoption. However, these teams often get “stuck” and begin to regress or simply start going through the motions—neither maximizing their agile performance nor delivering as much value as they could.

TF Agile Project Failures: Root Causes and Corrective Actions

Jeff Payne, Coveros, Inc.

Tue, 06/04/2013 - 8:30am

Agile initiatives always begin with the best of intentions—accelerate delivery, better meet customer needs, or improve software quality. Unfortunately, some agile projects do not deliver on these expectations. If you want help to ensure the success of your agile project or get an agile project back on track, this session is for you. Jeff Payne discusses the most common causes of agile project failure and how you can avoid these issues—or mitigate their damaging effects.

TM Six Free Ideas to Improve Agile Success

Pollyanna Pixton, Accelinnova

Tue, 06/04/2013 - 1:00pm

Free? Is anything free these days? Based on her experience working with organizational leaders and her research into what drives organizational performance, Pollyanna Pixton shares six ideas—and the keys to their effective implementation—to help assure the success of your agile teams. As a bonus, her suggestions won’t cost you a thing. Pollyanna’s first free idea is how to create a culture of trust—the keystone of open collaboration—within your team and organization. The second free idea is about ownership—how to give it and not take it back.

MP Solving Real Problems through Collaborative Innovation Games®

Bob Hartman, Agile For All

Mon, 06/03/2013 - 1:00pm

Are you having trouble getting people in your organization to agree on a path forward? Is collaboration sometimes more like a contest to see who can yell the loudest? Is it difficult to get customers to give you the information you need to create a product charter or unambiguous requirements? Achieving meaningful collaboration with a diverse group of people can be very difficult. Bob Hartman shares his experiences with Innovation Games®, collaboration exercises that dramatically improve the way people work together.

Concurrent Sessions

BW2 Building Customer Feedback Loops: Learn Quicker, Design Smarter

Sherif Mansour, Atlassian

Wed, 06/05/2013 - 10:15am

Listening to your customers is critical to developing better software. Their feedback enables you to stay in sync with customer expectations, to make changes before those changes become costly, and to pivot if necessary. Sharif shares five practical tips for building, capturing, and scaling feedback loops, providing real examples of what his team has learned.

BW5 Turbocharge Your Team’s Productivity: Increase Your Ability to Deliver

Rob Maher, Rob Maher Consulting

Wed, 06/05/2013 - 2:15pm

Many factors impact a team’s productivity. Some are well understood—collocation, size, common purpose. Others are less well known including social capital—the value of social networking. Rob Maher describes techniques that have been successfully used within organizations to enhance team productivity. Even geographically dispersed teams can benefit from techniques that build social capital to enhance productivity and reduce risk.

BT5 Gamification to Solve Real-World Challenges

Ram Srinivasan, inRhythm

Thu, 06/06/2013 - 2:15pm

What can we learn from Angry Birds, which has been downloaded more than one billion times? What makes games engaging and fun? What is the secret that motivates players to mastery, even when they fail 80 percent of the time? What if we could reverse-engineer the principles behind a well-designed game and graft them to a real-life business challenge? Based on psychology, design, strategy, and technology, gamification is an emerging and exciting concept. Ram Srinivasan describes the principles behind player engagement, social connectivity, and self-motivation to mastery.

AW9 Building Hyperproductive Agile Teams: Leveraging What Science Knows

Michael DePaoli, cPrime

Wed, 06/05/2013 - 3:45pm

The key impediments that prevent many organizations from ever realizing the promise of agile and lean aren’t rooted in processes or tools. The impediments stem from the organization’s leaders. Sharing an interdisciplinary overview of the most compelling science and research in the aspects of team performance, Michael DePaoli shows that it is largely ignored.

BT2 Mob Programming: A Whole Team Approach

Woody Zuill, Hunter Industries

Thu, 06/06/2013 - 10:15am

Teamwork is an important component of agile software development. We all agree that teamwork must be nurtured and grown in our organizations. But what does it mean to work as a team in the world of software development? How can we encourage our “teams” to truly work “as a team?” Woody Zuill and his team at Hunter Industries have found tremendous benefits following the whole team approach they call Mob Programming. Everyone works together at the same time, in the same space, on the same problem, and at the computer—every day, eight hours a day! How can this possibly work?