People and Teams

Tutorials

MC Agile Program Management: Networks, Not Hierarchies NEW

Johanna Rothman, Rothman Consulting Group, Inc.

Mon, 11/11/2013 - 8:30am

When you think of program management, do you think of big lumbering organizational beasts that add little value, and people demanding “When will you be done?” or “Can we add this feature before the desired release date?” Agile program management encourages small-world networks of collaborative teams that can solve problems and deliver features fast. That requires the entire program be agile and lean—using small batch sizes, integrating continuously, having short iterations, and tracking cycle time so you can coordinate across the organization.

MG What’s Your Leadership IQ?

Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA, Inc.

Mon, 11/11/2013 - 8:30am

Have you ever needed a way to measure your leadership IQ? Or been in a performance review where the majority of time was spent discussing your need to improve as a leader? If you have ever wondered what your core leadership competencies are and how to build on and improve them, Jennifer Bonine shares a toolkit to help you do just that.

MQ Six Free Ideas to Improve Agile Success

Pollyanna Pixton, Accelinnova

Mon, 11/11/2013 - 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.

MR Congruent Coaching: An Exploration NEW

Johanna Rothman, Rothman Consulting Group, Inc.

Mon, 11/11/2013 - 1:00pm

We have opportunities to coach people all the time. Much of what we see as coaching is actually undercover training. Real coaching is richer—offering support while explaining options. In this interactive session, Johanna Rothman invites you to explore how to coach, regardless of your position in the organization. Teaching is just one option for coaching. You have many other options, depending on your coaching stance. You may select a counselor’s stance if you are managing up or a partner’s stance if you are a peer.

TD Essential Patterns of Mature Agile Teams

Bob Galen, Velocity Partners

Tue, 11/12/2013 - 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 agile 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.

TQ Patterns for Collaboration: Toward Whole-Team Quality SOLD OUT

Janet Gregory, DragonFire, Inc.

Matt Barcomb, odbox

Tue, 11/12/2013 - 1:00pm

A lot of talk goes on in agile about how collaboration among team members helps drive a shared responsibility for quality—and more. However, most teams don't do much more than just hold stand-up meetings and have programmers and testers sit together. Although these practices improve communications, they are not collaboration! Most teams simply don't understand how to collaborate. Janet Gregory and Matt Barcomb guide you through hands-on activities that illustrate collaboration patterns for programmers and testers, working together.

Concurrent Sessions

AW2 Shut Up ‘n Play Yer Guitar Some More

David Hussman, DevJam

Wed, 11/13/2013 - 10:15am

History repeats itself as people once again become addicted to process. Today’s difficult problems call for a renaissance of agility, drawing on past success as we invent the future. Real value lies in intentional and contextual selection of agile tools instead of the noise associated with calls to practice “pure agile.” It is time to replace process-based thinking with outcome-based thinking. It is time to stop talking about process adherence and start focusing on product delivery.

AW5 Agile Success with Scrum: It’s All about the People

Bob Hartman, Agile For All

Michael Vizdos, Vizdos Enterprises, LLC

Wed, 11/13/2013 - 2:15pm

Is it possible to be doing everything Scrum says to do and still fail horribly? Unfortunately, the answer is yes—and teams do it every day. To many, Scrum means concentrating on the meetings and artifacts, and making sure the roles all do their jobs. Bob Hartman and Michael Vizdos explore why success with Scrum means understanding the people who do the work and giving them the tools and environment to do their best in a meaningful way.

AW6 Six Impossible Things before Breakfast

Dan North, Dan North & Associates, Ltd.

Kyle Thomson, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Wed, 11/13/2013 - 2:15pm

Recently we’ve been seeing a lot of things that just don’t happen in real life. A managing director at Bank of America abandons decades of organizational “best practices” and recreates his organization by letting people organize their own teams. And, if that weren’t unusual enough, the teams even choose their own coach. Impossible. A group of former managers reinvent their role as servants rather than masters. Also impossible.

AW10 I Thought YOU Were Flying the Plane: Preventing Projects from Falling Out of the Sky

Steve Adolph, WSA Consulting

Wed, 11/13/2013 - 3:45pm

One of the most cherished concepts of the Agile Manifesto is valuing individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Within this idea is the implicit assumption that individuals innately know how to interact. Dramatic lessons from aviation suggest otherwise. During the mid-1960s the frequent crashes of perfectly good aircraft alarmed the world’s airlines. Investigators discovered nothing lacking in the pilot’s “stick and rudder” skills; these accidents were the result of the flight crew’s inability to work as a team.

AW11 Organizing a Self-Organizing Team

John Lynch, Clashmore Software Solutions

Wed, 11/13/2013 - 3:45pm

Your organization is embracing agile. When it comes to adopting the process, your team seems to be doing all the right things. Yet deep down, something still doesn’t seem quite right. As their leader, it could be that you haven’t figured it out either. Perhaps your team is lacking some spark and is reluctant to take on real ownership. What can you do to help the team organize themselves to become the high-performing software development group you know they can be?

AT1 Large Agile Transformations: A Roadmap for Lasting Change

Ole Jepsen, goAgile

Jenni Jepsen, goAgile

Thu, 11/14/2013 - 10:15am

Agile methods have gained the attention of leaders as a way to speed time to market and increase motivation. Businesses are looking to agile as a way to achieve organizational change so teams deliver more value faster, and where people’s pride and joy of work are enhanced. However, we know from extensive experience that agile practices by themselves will not lead to this kind of an organizational transformation. What does it take?

AT3 Using Non-Violent Communication Skills for Managing Team Conflict

Pat Arcady, FreeStanding Agility

Thu, 11/14/2013 - 10:15am

“Going agile” has transformed thousands of workplaces into groups of self-directed teams, more engaged and increasingly more productive. Knowledge workers report increased job satisfaction, strong team identity, and camaraderie. One of the secrets of high performing teams is their ability to manage conflict in ways that support team cohesion, deepen trust, and reinforce commitment to team greatness. Agile practices value individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Sounds great on paper! How do you live that?

AT9 Lessons from Busting Organizational Silos

Tricia Broderick, Santeon Group

Thu, 11/14/2013 - 3:45pm

We’ve all heard of the evils that can result from organizational silos—bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and the “us vs. them” mentality. Perhaps you’ve been a victim. As Tricia Broderick repeatedly experienced value from busting individual project team silos, she naturally wanted to expand her busting across the entire organization. Not surprisingly, this turned out to be anything but simple. What surprised her was how many challenges resulted from falling victim to both faulty logic and prior successes, including halting a team’s progress out of concerns of sub-optimization.