Upcoming Meeting: August 28th with Jeff Schilling of S1

Jeff will talk about their Scrum implementation, some of the great things they are doing, and some of the lessons they have learned.

August 28th

Location: CPCC off Tyvola road - Elizabeth Ave and Independence Blvd

Past Meeting: July 14th with Dr. Jeff Sutherland, co-creator of Scrum 

Jeff joined us on July 14th.  He is always an interesting and informative speaker.

Dr. Jeff Sutherland is one of the inventors of the Scrum software development process. Together with Ken Schwaber, he created Scrum as a formal process at OOPSLA'95. They have extended and enhanced Scrum at many software companies and IT organizations.

Jeff is a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, a Top Gun of his USAF RF-4C Aircraft Commander class and flew 100 missions over North Vietnam. Jeff has advanced degrees from Stanford University and Ph.D from University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is currently a Chief technical officer of PatientKeeper, Inc in Newton, MA.

Topic: Hyperproductive distributed Scrum teams

Here are the slides: Pretty Good Scrum v1.pdf

This is a hot topic with most companies - how do you deal with large distributed teams?  What are the challenges with teams that are not co-located and how do you deal with it?  How do you use scrum with multiple teams?  What are the pitfalls to be on the lookout for and how do you get the best from your people? 

This was a great  chance to learn from the master himself, Jeff Sutherland.  The meeting is free and open to anyone. 

Location:  Vanguard Group on Tyvola Road.

Vanguard is located off of Tyvola between Tryon and Yorkmont.  The location is off N. Falls Drive just - turn west from Tyvola onto N. Falls and, at the end of N.Falls, go straight into the parking lot.  Vanguard is the building on the left.  Signs will direct once at the building.

Time: 6pm - 8pm.  Food and networking for the first 30 minutes.

Past Meeting: June 10th with Mary Lynn Manns, co-author of Fearless Change

Mary Lynn Manns will be joining us on June 10th.

Topic: Leading Fearless Change

"You have great ideas to bring into your organization but often struggle to make them happen. Unfortunately, those who want to introduce change are not always welcomed with open arms. Mary Lynn Manns has co-authored the popular book, Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas, that documents successful strategies of change leaders around the world.  You can learn how to influence others, overcome adversity and encourage people to become so involved and interested in your ideas that they really do want to change.  Bring your frustrations! You will hear solutions to the roadblocks that allow “powerless leaders” to fearlessly lead change in their organizations."  One might add that all leaders are, in the most meaningful sense, powerless.  Unless they lead slaves.

Again, this is a presentation that senior managers can profit from.

Here is a link to more information: http://www.cs.unca.edu/~manns/intropatterns.html

Here is a related article: Leading Fearless Change.pdf

Here is a link to the book at Amazon: Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas

Bio:

Mary Lynn Manns, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Asheville where she was on the faculty in the Department of Computer Science for 18 years and is now in the Department of Management. As the co-author of the Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas book, she has done numerous conference, academic, and industry presentations on the topic of leading change. Mary Lynn was also the conference chair for Agile 2007.

Location:  TBD (Charlotte)

Time: 6pm - 8pm.  Food and netwroking for the first 30 minutes.

Past Meeting: May 15th with Alan Bartnik of Vanguard Group

Alan Bartnik will be joining us on May 15th.

Topic: Agile Adoption - A corporate Retrospective

VanguardAgileAdoptionAgileCarolinas051508.ppt

"Increased Software Agility produces business benefits and competitive advantages that just make sense; yet adoption of Agile software delivery practices including SCRUM and XP predictably spark controversy within an organization. Why? Because there is some fundamental human behavior that must be anticipated, recognized and addressed along the way to Agile Adoption. Resistance to change leads to unexpected barriers to the adoption of an objectively "better way".

One of the keys to Agile success is the effective management of change within the Enterprise. Agile Carolinas offers you the opportunity to hear about some of the change management successes and challenges experienced (and being experienced) at Vanguard. Come participate in this interactive session to discuss signs & symptoms of change resistance and potential strategies for addressing it."

Please send your senior managers to this talk. I encourage you; make them come.

Bio:

Alan Bartnik is a software delivery manager in Vanguard's Retail Systems division. He is an organizational advocate for Agile practices and is currently leading an Agile software delivery project. 

Click here for a Google map.

Click Vanguard Location Details for more details on the location, directions, parking and security (check-in).

NB.  I must give your name to security beforehand, so please RSVP to the Evite (or be sure I know).

Past Meeting: April 24th with Israel Gat of BMC Software

Israel Gat will be joining us on April 24th.

Topic: Leading the Disruption.

"BMC’s experience implementing Agile over the past four years is viewed from an end-to-end corporate perspective. Effects of successful Agile implementation in R&D on Marketing, Sales, Professional Services and Customer Support are interpreted as inevitable consequences of introducing a disruptive methodology. The set of processes BMC has developed to mitigate disruption and facilitate alignment across value chain functions is critically reviewed. Agile-based Market-of-One design is proposed as the antidote to the innate corporate drive to “harness” disruptions. This design is shown to be a most meaningful form of Agile from a customer standpoint."

Below is a recent PPT from BMC. To me, it is very exciting because it provides hard evidence that Agile doubles software productivity. Those of us who know Agile are not surprised, but some managers need this evidence. Israel knew they already had much increased productivity, but he spent the bucks to prove it to the rest of BMC (and for us).

The PPT also talks about the strains that success typically (not always) puts on an organization. To me, while these strains are hard, they are the kind of problems we need.

Please send your senior managers to this talk with Israel Gat. I encourage you; make them come.

Bio:

Israel Gat is the head of BMC’s Distributed System Management – a business unit that is 100% “Scrummed”. His executive career has spanned some of the world’s top technology companies, including IBM, Digital, Microsoft, EMC and BMC. Digital’s NetView, EMC’s Cellera, Microsoft’s MOM 2000 and the BMC Performance Manager are some of the products he brought to market during his tenure with these companies. In addition to his experience with industry giants, Israel is also well versed in growing smaller companies and has held advisory and venture capital positions for companies in new, high-growth markets.

Israel holds a Ph.D. degree in Computer Sciences from the Israeli Institute of Technology and an MBA degree from Clark University. He lives in Austin, TX with his wife and fourteen year old son.

Click here for a Google map.

Click Vanguard Location Details for more details on the location, directions, parking and security (check-in).

NB.  I must give your name to security beforehand, so please RSVP to the Evite (or be sure I know).

Past Meeting - March 20th

Format: Open Space

See here if you are not familiar with Open Space and want to learn more about it. (It is somewhat described below.)

The key thing about Open Space is that it enables you to engage on a topic you want to discuss, and with people who also want to discuss it. It can even be used to solve problems.

Theme: My friend has a problem, and I need your help for 30 minutes!

Sub-Text: The problem has to do with an agile effort or with agile adoption.

Location: CPCC at Elizabeth Ave and Independence Blvd.

More about the format:

We will have a short intro to Open Space.

Then 5 sessions in parallel during a 40 minute period.

A 5 minute "break".

Then 5 more sessions in parallel, during a 40 minute period.

Then 20 minutes of wrap-up.

We will start with people proposing up to 6 sessions for one time slot. (The top 5 most popular get "locations".)

Each session requires a "leader" who identifies the topic (problem) and "leads" the group to some degree. Topics will be identified that night.

Participants get to choose which session to attend.

Each session needs a scribe. We ask that each session post its results (main points, etc) on this wiki. (Either real time or later.)

We will use the last 20 minutes for session leaders (and their teams) to discuss with the whole group what they learned.

At the discretion of each team, a session may be continued at any time.

We also have "butterflies" and "bumblebees". And food and drink. Butterflies and bumblebees may fly from topic to topic, as they wish.

If you have not done, it may seem strange. After you do it, you may realize that all good and useful conversations are like this in most ways. Even newbies are highly likely to have fun and to learn.

See you there!

Past Meeting - February 20th

On Feb 20th we have Jared Richardson visiting to talk about Testing Strategies.

Please contact me if you are not on the Evite. Or RSVP to the Evite. The meeting is free (with food).

We will meet at CPCC (near downtown) at 6pm (networking & food). The talk starts at 6:30pm. Details on the Evite.

Location: CPCC, IT Building. Room IT2132. NW corner of Elizabeth Ave and Independence Blvd.

There is free parking in the parking deck at 4th Street and Independence Blvd (almost 1 block earlier).

Maps: CPCC map

Google Map

Topic: Agile Software Testing Strategies

Test automation is like exercise. We know both are great ideas, but most of us don’t do enough of either. Although we know that creating a solid automated test suite is critical to any agile testing strategy, we are often just told to “Do it” without much support, ­money or people.

Jared Richardson examines the infrastructure and tools needed for your automated testing to succeed and prosper. Jared examines three strategies­test-driven development, defect-driven testing, and blitzkrieg testing ­you can use to ensure great test coverage on your projects. You’ll gain an understanding of how to leverage your testing investments by employing continuous integration practices in your development projects.

With real life scenarios as a backdrop, Jared discusses appropriate testing strategies for your current project or the next one down the road. Jared will get you moving toward automated testing, whether you're starting fresh or trying to clean up an existing project.

Jared Richardson, co-author of Ship It! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects, is a regular conference speaker and an agile coach at 6th Sense Analytics. Jared has been in the industry for more than fifteen years as a consultant, developer, tester, and manager. Until recently, he was an independent consultant focused on helping teams build better software. He's now bringing that same focus to 6th Sense Analytics and its clients, using both the 6th Sense toolset and his unique perspective. Jared can be found online at www.AgileArtisans.com and www.6sa.com/blog.

AgileTestingStrategies.ppt

Past meeting - January 29th

Mary & Tom Poppendieck joined us on Tuesday, Jan 29th. (They were in town teaching their Lean Software Development - Practitioner's course.)

Topic: Organizational Agility: What's not in the book?

Abstract :

So, you've got some cross functional teams, you're running in sprints, you're doing stand-ups - Awesome!!! Hm, but alas, it doesn't quite feel agile. What now?

In this session, we will listen to Mary Poppendieck talk about what sort of things her experience shows will help in this respect. Some examples of high performance cultures and where organizational change in thinking really occurred. What is involved in having such a change? What are those hidden fundamental organizational process and cultural changes that make the most positive impact?

The session is for all audiences, whatever your role in your software organization.

The talk will be interactive, with plenty of time for Q&A.

If you would like to see the bio for Mary Poppendieck, click here. And here are the slides she used: Whats Not in the Book.pdf

We will start with some good food at 6:30pm.

Please tell me if you plan to attend (so we will have enough food).

Lash Group

3735 Glen Lake Drive, Building 5 ??, Charlotte, NC 28208 (building on the left after the circle)

This is near Tyvola and Billy Graham Parkway.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=3735+Glen+Lake+Dr,+Charlotte,+NC+28208,+USA&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title

views since March 15, 2007.