Skip to main content

Leadership

Tutorials

MA Agile Release Planning, Metrics, and Retrospectives
Michael Mah, QSM Associates, Inc.
Mon, 11/11/2013 - 8:30am

How do you compare the productivity and quality you achieve with agile practices with that of traditional waterfall projects? Join Michael Mah to learn about both agile and waterfall metrics and how these metrics behave in real projects. Learn how to use your own data to move from sketches on a whiteboard to create agile project trends on productivity, time-to-market, and defect rates. Using recent, real-world case studies, Michael offers a practical, expert view of agile measurement, showing you these metrics in action on retrospectives and release estimation and planning. In hands-on exercises, learn how to replicate these techniques to make your own comparisons for time, cost, and quality. Working in pairs, calculate productivity metrics using the templates Michael employs in his consulting practice. You can leverage these new metrics to make the case for changing to more agile practices and creating realistic project commitments in your organization. Take back new ways for communicating to key decision makers the value of implementing agile development practices.

Read more
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.

Read more
ME Twelve Heuristics for Solving Tough Problems—Faster and Better
Payson Hall, Catalysis Group, Inc.
Mon, 11/11/2013 - 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. But 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.

Read more
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.

Read more
MO Understanding and Managing Change
Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA, Inc.
Mon, 11/11/2013 - 1:00pm

Has this happened to you? You try to implement a change in your organization and it fails. And, to make matters worse, you can't figure out why. It may be that your great idea didn't mesh well with your organization’s culture or a host of other reasons. Jennifer Bonine shares a toolkit to help you determine which ideas will—and will not—work well within your organization.

Read more
MP Solving Real Problems through Collaborative Innovation Games®
Bob Hartman, Agile For All
Michael Vizdos, Vizdos Enterprises, LLC
Mon, 11/11/2013 - 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 and Michael Vizdos shares their experiences with Innovation Games®, collaboration exercises that dramatically improve the way people work together.

Read more
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.

Read more
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.

Read more
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.

Read more

Concurrent Sessions

BW4 To Build Better Software, Build Better Developers and Testers
Iris Classon, Evry
Scott Allen, Medisolv, Inc.
Wed, 11/13/2013 - 10:15am

Developers and testers are, by their very nature, curious creatures. But when facing deadlines, they often become fixated on solving today's problem and miss the bigger picture. Over time and under pressure, they lose their motivation to learn new information and acquire new skills. Without a plan encouraging learning can be costly—and can backfire. A professional development plan should incorporate practical strategies and techniques for the entire team and managers.

Read more
BW9 A Mind-Blowing Exploration on How to Make Better Decisions
Iain McCowatt, Barclays
Wed, 11/13/2013 - 3:45pm

Have you ever watched a medical drama with scenes featuring doctors making split second, life-or-death decisions? As software professional, there may be less at stake when it comes to your decisions, yet you often need to act under time pressure, limited information, and conditions of uncertainty. How do you decide whether a particular course of action will help or harm your project? Are you rational: Do you identify, weigh and compare your options? Or are your decisions more intuitive: Do you size up the situation quickly and simply “know” how to act?

Read more
BW11 How Experian Revolutionized Product Strategy and Management with Big Data
Jeff Hassemer, Experian
Wed, 11/13/2013 - 3:45pm

Agile discussions often focus on stories, backlogs, development, and testing. At Experian they also brought product strategy management and strategy into the agile fold to ensure their teams were in lock-step with customer requirements and priorities. That resulted in the delivery of Experian’s first big data project—without adding a single new person or “big data expert.” How did they do it? Product guru Jeff Hassemer shares his (not-so) kumbaya moments of how he learned about the principles of agile within big data projects—in action.

Read more
BT3 Power and Empowerment: Understanding the Principles
Esther Derby, Esther Derby Associates, Inc.
Thu, 11/14/2013 - 10:15am

Managers want teams to be empowered but often don’t want to give up their decision-making authority. Teams want to be empowered but may not know how to act on the power they already have. Executives want to drive engagement and action but see only half-hearted compliance. These are examples of power dynamics at play. Esther Derby explains that words won’t matter until people acknowledge power. Once people acknowledge the fact of power, it’s possible to look at how it is affecting people and actions.

Read more
BT9 Growing a Learning Organization from the Bottom Up
Matt Barcomb, odbox
Thu, 11/14/2013 - 3:45pm

Learning organizations seem like a great idea to just about everyone. But how do you actually create them? In many organizations, attempting to promote learning can seem daunting at best and impossible at worst—especially when you don't feel particularly empowered to do so. Matt Barcomb focuses on what you can do from multiple perspectives. He first discusses what a learning organization is and why the concept is important for the future of many organizations. Next, Matt shares approaches and considerations for growing learning environments, including common organizational pitfalls.

Read more
BT11 The Personal A3 Approach for Developing People
Bob Payne, LitheSpeed
Thu, 11/14/2013 - 3:45pm

Organizations invest high levels of effort setting up elaborate employee performance tracking systems. In fact, these costly and onerous processes may even drive the wrong behaviors if inappropriate metrics are selected or employees learn to game the system. However, a simpler and more effective approach to personnel development is right in front of us. Bob Payne describes the Lean A3 problem solving and communication tool that can be used to improve processes and create a learning culture.

Read more