Conference archive

Agile Leadership Summit

Agile Leadership Summit

"Increasing Leadership Mastery"
Thursday, November 17 • 5:30 pm–7:30 pm and Friday, November 18  • 8:30 am–4:00 pm

As leaders, we often put our teams and organizations first. We have a responsibility to foster continuous learning and improvement. The trick is introducing change in a way that is lasting, effective—and not invasive. If this were easy, it would not be called leading. So, where do you start? With you! Take the time and challenge yourself to increase your leadership mastery.

Participants in the Agile Leadership Summit learn from and work with experienced agile leaders who have led lasting change and produced a thriving agile culture. Learn ways to challenge your personal leadership growth, as well as ways to lead challenges for your organization including: communication interpretations, anti-fragile approaches, visual data information radiators, and more.

Tricia Broderick, who works with leadership teams to foster high performance, is the program chair and your facilitator for the Agile Leadership Summit. Tricia guides participants, working in small groups, to gain insight into their biggest challenges. Tricia is an agile coach and trainer with Agile For All.


Blake Nyquist, the head of research and development at Liquid Web, is an experienced agile adoption and transformation leader. He shares his journey in starting to move beyond coaching teams to coaching leaders within the organization.

Madhumita Das, an AVP of QA at Great-West: Financial Empower Retirement, is an exceptional leader. She shares her experience with what to avoid within your agile software testing specialization to maximize value and quality of deliverables released.

Esther Derby and Ellen Grove are experienced agile coaches who have supported numerous leaders to increase not only their own mastery but also that of their teams. Esther’s and Ellen’s success is based on years of deep practice: how leaders communicate, how leaders respond to conflict, and how to breed an agile mindset in yourself, your teams, customers, and organization.

Bring your challenges, experiences, curiosity, and an open mind. Leave with a short list of things you can work on immediately and other breakthrough ideas for the long term.

Friday, November 18

Blake Nyquist
Liquid Web

On Leading Leaders: A Transition Journey

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Friday, November 18, 2016 - 8:45am to 10:00am

Coaching individuals is one of the greatest challenges—and rewards—we leaders face. When even a single person is guided to reach new skill levels, agile teams can experience powerful beneficial change. For instance, helping a developer gain better understanding of testing practices can improve downstream quality and flow of work. Likewise, leaders need to practice continuous improvement as much as they encourage it within teams. What if you as a leader can improve your skills by coaching leadership itself? With leadership styles as varied as the people leading,... Learn More

Ellen Grove
Independent Consultant

Games for Learning about Conflict Resolution

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Friday, November 18, 2016 - 10:20am to 11:50am

Scaling agile across the enterprise can create challenging organizational conflicts as groups accustomed to working in their own silos struggle to collaborate effectively and identify their shared interests. Join Ellen Grove to learn useful models for considering conflict supported by games teams can use to develop and practice conflict resolution skills. The models address underlying drivers of conflict, modes for responding to conflict, ways to assess conflict severity to determine appropriate interventions, and patterns of principled negotiation. The games... Learn More

Esther Derby
Independent Consultant

Leaders at All Levels

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Friday, November 18, 2016 - 1:00pm to 2:15pm

Traditional definitions of leadership emphasize position, formal authority and power, vision, and heroics. These definitions might have been sufficient in another time. However, organizations that need to respond to a fast-changing environment and desire continuous improvement require a different kind of leadership and a different kind of leader. Join Esther Derby to explore a new definition of leadership—the ability to enhance the environment, so that everyone is empowered to contribute creatively to solving the problems.

Madhumita Das
Great-West: Financial Empower Retirement

Six Things to Avoid in Software Testing on Agile Projects

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Friday, November 18, 2016 - 2:30pm to 3:30pm

With the emphasis on cross-functional teams, are testers still valuable on agile teams? The answer: Absolutely! Testing helps consider the full spectrum of quality attributes by bringing a unique perspective of evaluating various user interactions with the application. Insufficient testing may allow severe defects to pass into production, causing financial loss or even bankruptcy. Knowing how to leverage testing to gain the greatest rewards can be tricky as there are many things you can do that appear to be equally important—and likewise many things to avoid. For... Learn More